NYC security tightened, cops sent to D.C. to protect Capitol, NYPD says

The NYPD has increased security citywide and is helping authorities protect Washington D.C. before President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, but the city faces no credible threats after supporters of President Donald Trump attacked the Capitol, a department official said Thursday.

Even so, the storming of the heart of American democracy last week underscored that the dangers posed to New Yorkers and the nation are unprecedented in modern times, said John Miller, the NYPD's deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism.

"Nothing compares to any past threats," Miller said during a news conference on domestic terrorism. "We have never had Americans fighting Americans in the streets of the nation’s Capitol or anything like that, probably since the Civil War."

The FBI has warned law-enforcement agencies across the United States about potential threats in state capitols before Biden’s Wednesday inauguration. Miller said heavy security in Washington and those cities during the next few days could persuade right-wing extremists to hit other targets.

In response, the NYPD beefed up security at government buildings, including City Hall, and other locations, based on its latest intelligence reports, Miller said.

"There are no specific, credible threats to New York City as an outgrowth of the events of Jan. 6," Miller said. "That said, we wake up every day on the assumption that there is a specific, credible threat, and we hunt for it."

The NYPD is sending 200 officers with a variety of skills and experience to Washington to provide security leading up to the inauguration. The officers will be deputized as federal law-enforcement agents, something that has never been done before, Miller said. The department is also sharing intelligence and coordinating resources with state and federal agencies to prevent further violence from Trump supporters.

"The city of New York and the NYPD will do everything we can to assist the federal government," Miller said.

Multiple investigations are underway in search of those who incited or participated in the siege of the Capitol as Congress convened to certify the results of the Nov. 3 presidential election. Five people died in the siege, including a Capitol Police officer and a rioter shot by police. The siege came after the president's relentless false claims of widespread election fraud and his calls for supporters to rally at the Capitol in protest.

Miller said the NYPD is assisting the FBI and other agencies to identify New Yorkers, including department officers and other law-enforcement officials, who may have participated in the riot. Investigators are trying to identify anyone who organized and financed the rioters, Miller said. Last week’s violence appears to be the work of a loose network whose members meet and mobilize online, he said.

Intelligence analysts, according to Miller, believe the attack on the Capitol will impact violent Trump supporters in one of two ways: They will either be emboldened by their assault or they will back off because of the resulting fallout.

"I don’t think we can reach any conclusions right now," Miller said.