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Lots of police cars at Grand Army today — Brooklynian

Lots of police cars at Grand Army today

burningorange
burningorange
edited November -1 in Prospect Heights
Anyone know why? When I drove past at about 3:30pm there were about 25 cars parked around the arch with their lights on.

Some kind of drill?

Hmmm.

Comments

  • carnivore
    carnivore

    Subject: Re: Lots of police cars at Grand Army today

    burningorange wrote: Anyone know why? When I drove past at about 3:30pm there were about 25 cars parked around the arch with their lights on.

    Some kind of drill?

    Hmmm.
    They keep doing this. I hope they're not planning something ugly for Sunday night. :evil:
  • armchair_warrior
    armchair_warrior
    god i hate these drills. few times they did a run from west side highway to brooklyn bridge and they went some where grrrr.
  • piglet
    piglet
    I find this really annoying! It's disorienting enough trying to drive through GAP under normal circumstances--don't need a million flashing lights everywhere as well.
  • massimo
    massimo

    Subject: still there today!

    They are at it again today. I'm thinking not only this is a huge waste of taxpayer's (i.e. our) money, but it's a great invite for criminals to do deeds during the drills. And what the hell is the point, anyway???
  • breuckelen
    breuckelen
    It's a Hercules demonstration to practice getting a major police presence into a tight spot quickly as well as a show of strength.

    I originally thought that they were hungry and on a donut run.
  • elitt
    elitt

    Subject: Re: still there today!

    Yeah...a huge waste of taxpayer money to make sure the force is prepared to protect YOU in case of a large scale emergency. You're the same people that would whine and compain if something disatrous happened and the police weren't practiced enough to deal with it.
    Massimo wrote: They are at it again today. I'm thinking not only this is a huge waste of taxpayer's (i.e. our) money, but it's a great invite for criminals to do deeds during the drills. And what the hell is the point, anyway???
  • paraderest
    paraderest
    Breuckelen, you are close but incorrect. It is not a Hercules drill but actually a "Surge" drill. Hercules and Surge are both counter-terrorism initiatives but have very different purposes and personnel.

    You may call it a waste of money and at times it may appear to be just that but think back two weeks to the airplane crash in Manhattan. Hercules and Surge were deployed to the area promptly providing extra resources should they be needed. Mobilizing the Surge detail will bring up to 200 cops to an incident very quickly.
  • massimo
    massimo
    Right, but I can hardly see a connection between mobilizing a bunch of cars from disparate areas of the city in response to an accident and a "drill" that has them start neatily lined up on a large boulevard. I'm still voting for the waste of money...
  • breuckelen
    breuckelen
    ParadeRest wrote: Breuckelen, you are close but incorrect. It is not a Hercules drill but actually a "Surge" drill. Hercules and Surge are both counter-terrorism initiatives but have very different purposes and personnel.

    You may call it a waste of money and at times it may appear to be just that but think back two weeks to the airplane crash in Manhattan. Hercules and Surge were deployed to the area promptly providing extra resources should they be needed. Mobilizing the Surge detail will bring up to 200 cops to an incident very quickly.
    I never said it was a waste of money.

    I kind of like the impromptu parade of lights and excitement at the expense of causing traffic for everyone else.

    I wonder if the donuts and coffee give them a rush?
  • paraderest
    paraderest
    Massimo, there is a muster location for the drill that is different from day to day. Today the location may be Grand Army Plaza, tommorow it may be East 42nd and 1st and the day after it may be somewhere in Queens. From that point the cars are redeployed to a location that may be a potential target or a high visibility location such as a temple or Times Square, repectively.

    In the event that there is major incident somewhere in the city the bosses decide if the Surge cops are needed at that scene or if they need to remain in their current location in the event of a secondary incident or attack.

    The drill keeps officers available for deployment to major incidents. If there was a major incident requiring a mass amount of cops it would take a long time to pull cops off of their current assignments and reassign them to the disaster where they would have to muster up, get head counts, etc before finally being put to work at the disaster. Surge has almost 200 cops already accounted for and ready to respond.
  • massimo
    massimo
    Thanks for the explanation, I was unaware of the details. Still -- and sorry if I appear rather thick-headed -- I don't see, from a purely logistical standpoint, how concentrating cars into one place and then deploying them in any way simulates a disaster situation.

    Surely if a major disaster happens they won't ask cars to neatly line up somewhere and then converge on the point of need, right?

    Also, I don't understand why re-assigning cars already in service would be difficult, considering both radios and computer technology.

    Interesting discussion, though...
  • steveo
    steveo
    It's a Critical Mass for cops. They do it to assert their right to do whatever the heck they want.
  • stacey
    stacey
    ParadeRest wrote: In the event that there is major incident somewhere in the city the bosses decide if the Surge cops are needed at that scene or if they need to remain in their current location in the event of a secondary incident or attack.
    Great info Parade thanks! But do you happen to know if these are police officers for local precincts? Because I remember 9/11 the city and this area was a parking lot. I assume they would try and clear a lane for emergency vehicles only - but to get here from say Manhattan or even Coney Island would be almost impossible.
  • paraderest
    paraderest
    Actually, the powers that be have realized that it is better to muster at a point away from the incident site in order to avoid all of the congestion. They would possibly even muster in another borough and then travel to the location.

    Each precinct sends two cops with a car. In addition to that there is a sgt for each 8 or 10 cops and a Capt. for each patrol borough represented (Patrol Borough Brooklyn North, Brooklyn South, Queens North, etc...) as well as the Surge Inspector.
  • homeowner
    homeowner
    While it may be very useful, it does have unintended side effects. I drove through the circle today while the Surge was happening and there was a wedding party taking pictures at the fountain in GAP. So in the background of all their shots were a mass of police cars with flashers on and the mobile police unit.

    "Mommy, why were the police at your wedding...?"
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