New Security Measures Being Deployed For New Year's Eve Events
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NEW YORK (CBSMiami) – New York's iconic Times Square is just one of several high-profile locations that will draw massive crowds for New Year's Eve celebrations.
With so many terror attacks in 2016, new kinds of security measures are being deployed.
Over two million people are expected to pack Times Square to watch the ball drop.
They'll be joined by some 7,000 New York police officers, who will be be on rooftops, overhead in helicopters and on the ground, screening revelers twice.
At the 11 entrances to Times Square will be something new this year: 65 garbage trucks filled with sand – each one weighing 40 tons.
The sanitation trucks are designed to stop a terror attack similar to those that occurred in Nice, France and Berlin, Germany. In those incidents, trucks were used as weapons and driven into crowds.
Police in California will be watching along the 5.5-mile route of the New Year's Day Rose Parade. There, heavy water-filled barriers will be in place at dozens of intersections to try to protect an estimated crowd of 700,000 people.
Chief James Waters oversees counterterrorism efforts for the NYPD.
While there has been no specific threat in regards to New Year's Eve in Times Square, the concern has not diminished.
"In many respects, it raises concerns because you're worried you missed something or not tuned into something," he said. "I have much more confidence when we're tracking the target, cause I have a great deal of confidence in the people of New York City."