NYPD protecting the pope "by sea, by air and by land"
The effort to protect Pope Francis during his visit to the United States has been called the "largest security operation" in U.S. history. As the pope spends Friday covering nearly all of Manhattan, the Secret Service is leading a huge security operation involving nearly 50 agencies--the largest of them, the New York City Police Department.
Police Commissioner William Bratton is looking to build on the success of the pope's trip to Washington by dedicating more than 7,000 officers to protect him in New York, but there will be challenges, reports "CBS This Morning" co-host Norah O'Donnell.
"This is a pope that's made it quite clear in his travels around the world that he wants to mix and mingle...and for us, nothing but security nightmares," Bratton said.
Unlike Washington, where the popemobile slowly moved up a city street, his meet-and-greet procession in New York will be limited to a controlled corridor in Central Park. In addition to thousands of officers on the ground, the NYPD will also have an extra set of "eyes in the sky," helicopters to monitor the pope's every move with incredible detail.
"You can see the color of someone's eyes," said NYPD Chief of Counter-terrorism James Waters. "This aircraft is also equipped with radiological protection equipment. So they can do aerial surveys not only of the routes and areas and the venues, but of the entire city."
The NYPD will also be using boats to patrol and restrict access to many of the city's waterways.
The massive security operation is especially important as the pope is not the only guest in town. More than 90 percent of world leaders will also attend the 70th meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, the largest to date.
"We have a lot to protect and we are going to be protecting the pope, the United Nations General Assembly, and the President of the United States when he arrives. And we do that by sea, by air and by land," said Waters.
Bratton said the U.N. meeting's confluence with the papal visit is the greatest test of his department's preparedness.
"It is unprecedented in a sense of the security challenge to us," Bratton said. "From a crowd management point of view, this is the largest we've ever been engaged in because of the sheer number of people we are going to have to protect," Bratton said.
Police escorts will also be provided for no less than 200 motorcades of foreign dignitaries, including the pope. While the pope won't have any difficulty getting around because the NYPD will "literally freeze everything to move him," it will be a gridlock for just about everyone else.
"You don't want to be driving a car in New York...take a subway definitely or walk," Bratton said laughing.