Police use counterterrorism equipment, tactics to prevent vehicles from being deployed as weapons

The counterterrorism security measures are ubiquitous at large-scale events on Long Island and in New York City: drones in the sky, large trucks blocking traffic to areas where revelers have converged, police K-9 units and, in some areas, steel bollards.

Police in Nassau and Suffolk counties and the NYPD say they use an array of counterterrorism equipment and tactics in an effort to prevent a vehicle from being deployed as a weapon on crowds of civilians, as authorities say happened on New Year's Day in New Orleans.

Fourteen people were killed in the New Orleans attack — including two former Long Islanders, Matthew Tenedorio and Billy DiMaio, both 25 — when authorities said suspected killer Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar, a U.S. Army veteran, drove a rented pickup truck through a crowd of pedestrians in the city's storied French Quarter.

The FBI called the attack "an act of terrorism" and said Jabbar appeared to have acted alone and was inspired by the terror group ISIS, The Associated Press reported. The suspect was killed in a firefight with police.

Less than a month ago, five people were killed and more than two dozen others were injured when a vehicle rammed into a crowded Christmas market in Germany.

On Long Island, Nassau and Suffolk police departments officials said they use additional resources to keep people safe during large scale events.

Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder said layers of security — from bag checks to bomb-detecting dogs to dump trucks as deterrents — at large events are key.

At last summer's cricket tournament at Eisenhower Park, Ryder said police lined the perimeter of the site with concrete barriers and used a mobile electronic gate at the entrance that could have been deployed had a vehicle attempted to ram pedestrians.

Ryder said UBS Arena in Elmont has bollards on its grounds.

"We need to be mobile," said Ryder. "Every day my target changes."

Ryder said while he feels well-prepared for an attack, it's impossible to prepare for every scenario.

"[Nassau County Executive] Bruce Blakeman drives me hard, he questions me over and over, 'did you do enough?' You never do enough," Ryder said. "But you gotta prepare as best as you can and be prepared for the unknown."

In a statement, a Suffolk police spokesperson declined to speak specifically about security measures. "During any large scale event, the Suffolk County Police Department utilizes additional resources to keep people safe. The department's Homeland Security Section, Criminal Intelligence Section and the Emergency Service Section monitor these events," the statement read.

Joseph Giacalone, a retired NYPD sergeant who has been present for NYPD security briefings for the Times Square ball drop and other large-scale events, said the increasing use of vehicles in attacks — something almost anyone can access — should put police departments around the country on notice to harden the security perimeters around its events.

"Part of your whole plan is diverting the traffic away from these areas so the bad guys can't even get close," Giacalone said.

The NYPD routinely places sanitation trucks, bulldozers and trucks filled with sand along event perimeters to prevent potential vehicle attacks or car bombs, such as the 2010 Times Square car bombing attempt, Giacalone said.

"Basically unless it's a tank, you're not gonna get anything past it," Giacalone said.

For this year's Times Square New Year's Eve ball drop celebration, which was estimated to draw some 1 million spectators, the NYPD deployed bomb-sniffing dogs and thousands of officers — some in plainclothes, others armed with long guns and stationed on rooftops — to secure the event, which is nationally televised.

Similarly, Nassau County police have used those security tactics, along with portable radiation detectors at the Long Island Marathon, for more than a decade.

Metal or steel columns, referred to as permanent perimeter barriers or bollards, have increasingly been used by law enforcement to harden potential targets.

The bollards were not being used at the site of the New Orleans attack because they were in the process of being replaced ahead of the Super Bowl, city officials said Monday, according to the Associated Press.

In 2018, New York City announced it would install approximately 1,500 security bollards at sites around the city. Previously, the city had installed bollards at the Times Square pedestrian plazas as part of a $50 million project completed in 2016, officials have said.

Giacalone said he was on the lookout for a potential attack by drone at this year's ball drop in Times Square.

"Once you harden a target, they're gonna look for other ways to do things," Giacalone said. 

By Nicole Fuller

nicole.fuller@newsday.com@NicoleFuller

Nicole Fuller is Newsday's senior criminal justice reporter. She began working at Newsday in 2012 and previously covered local government.