'Mega Indian cities can learn lessons from Big Apple'

Lalit K Jha

Washington, Sep 11 (PTI) Highly impressed by the steps
taken by New York Police Department (NYPD) to secure the Big
Apple from any major terrorist attack, Indian Home Minister, P
Chidambaram, Friday said that mega Indian cities like Mumbai
and New Delhi could implement some of their practices.

Chidambaram, who was given an extensive briefing by the
New York Police Commissioner, Raymond Kelly, on the day of his
arrival in the US, said he was "impressed" by the steps being
taken by NYPD to secure a mega city like that of New York.

"Some of those practices can be applied in India's mega
cities like Delhi, Mumbai etc," Chidambaram said in response
to a question at a press briefing with the Indian media in
Washington.

"NYPD was in my list (of meetings) because I was keen to
know how it was securing a mega city. There is a new book
called "Securing the City" and that describes what
Commissioner Kelly has done in NYPD. I was very keen to see
how NYPD worked," Chidambaram said.

In the aftermath of the Mumbai terrorist attack, NYPD has
taken several measures to secure the city from 26-11-type
attack. It not only sent a team to Mumbai soon after the
terrorist attacks, but has also conducted several mock drills
to prevent any major casualties if such an attack ever occurs
in the city.

"We established the nation's first municipal counter
terrorism bureau, and we restructured our Intelligence
Division. We recruited the best that the federal government
had to offer to head those two operations. We created a
new civilian intelligence program to support our field
commanders with timely information and analysis," Kelly told a
Congressional committee early this year, which held a hearing
on Mumbai terrorist attack.

"We also conducted two exercises, one a tactical drill
for Emergency Service Unit officers, the other a tabletop
exercise for commanders. Both scenarios mirrored the attacks
in Mumbai," he said.

"Based on our analysis of what took place in Mumbai,
we've been training additional officers in the use of heavy
weapons and close quarters battle tactics. In the event of a
sustained attack, such as we saw in India, these officers will
be able to support and relieve the more than 400 members of
our Emergency Service Unit who already have these skills,"
Kelly said.

NYPD has also provided basic heavy weapons instruction
for our most recent class of over 1,000 police recruits, as in
Mumbai, the local police were simply outgunned by the
terrorists. "We don’t want that to happen in New York," he
said.

NYPD has also tied coordinated with the service providers
to see if a means can be developed to pinpoint disruption of
cell or satellite phones used by terrorists during an attack,
without the wholesale disruption of communications in the
immediate vicinity.

"We also saw that in Mumbai, the local authorities had
insufficient knowledge of the layouts of the targets. In light
of this observation, we've assigned our Emergency Service Unit
supervisors to tour major hotels and other landmarks. Out of
each visit they develop a briefing book with a description of
the location and detailed diagrams, as well a video that can
be used for training purposes," Kelly said.

Through another partnership, Operation Nexus, NYPD
detectives have made thousands of visits to the kind of
companies terrorists might seek to exploit, truck rental
businesses, scuba diving schools, or hotels.

"We let them know what to look for and what to do if they
observe suspicious behaviour. As part of this initiative,
we’ve assigned a senior officer to work exclusively with
hotels," he said. PTI LKJ
ANU