Times Square packed with security for New Year's

December 30, 2012 | Modified: December 30, 2012 at 12:45 pm
Leave a comment

FILE - In this Dec. 31, 2011 file photo, a police officer walks through a frozen zone in New York City’s Times Square as revelers wave balloons in anticipation of midnight. The New York City police use an array of security measures for the event that turns the "Crossroads of the World" into a massive street party in the heart of Manhattan. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Police Department is assigning thousands of extra patrols in Times Square on New Year's Eve, but they won't all be in plain sight.

There will be uniformed officers, bomb-sniffing dogs and heavily armed counterterrorism teams. But there also will be plainclothes officers, assigned to blend into the crowd.

Many officers will be wearing palm-size radiation detectors designed to give off a signal if they detect evidence of a dirty bomb, an explosive intended to spread panic by creating a radioactive cloud.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly says Times Square will be the safest place in the world on Dec. 31.

Hundreds of thousands of people were expected to pack into Midtown Manhattan on Monday night to see the crystal ball drop and ring in 2013.