By Olivia Scheck
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — An NYPD effort to deter terrorists by packing high-risk targets with extra police officers has been reduced because of a recent freeze on overtime payments, the New York Post reported.
Operation Atlas, which included the deployment of heavily-armed Emergency Service Unit officers to major transportation hubs, like the Times Square subway station and Grand Central Terminal, was formulated to defend against possible terrorist retaliation at the beginning of the Iraq War, as reported by the New York Times in March 2003.
For the past seven years, the program has hired 72 police officers per shift to pick up overtime hours in order to patrol randomly chosen terror targets throughout the city, at a cost of $5 million a year, the Post said.
"Atlas functions at sensitive locations such as landmarks continues where it is needed," NYPD spokesman Paul Browne told the Post, though the program must now rely on officers working within their normal hours. Browne would not speak to the specific changes that would be made to the program, the Post said.
The overtime freeze has also affected another counterterrorism program, which sent extra officers to patrol subway stations during rush hours, according to the paper.
Despite these cuts, Browne assured the Post that the NYPD would continue to deploy a large number of anti-terrorism units.
"Over 1,000 officers [are] assigned to counterterrorism duties in New York every day -- below and above ground," the NYPD spokesman explained.
"Doing it on straight time is just more economical."
