The NYPD is increasing its security measures for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade to include dozens of sand trucks, Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism John Miller said in a CBS News interview Monday.
The move comes more than a week after a new ISIS threat encouraging vehicle-based attacks was detailed in the terrorist group’s online magazine.
Miller said 81 sand trucks would be placed along the parade route in addition to measures the department has used in the past, including lining up vehicles end-to-end to block the road.
“In this case, kind of reviewing it based on that article, we’ve ordered up 81 sand trucks,” Miller said, speaking on “CBS This Morning.” “You can ram a New York City sanitation department sand truck with a lot of things, but you’re not going to move it.”
The latest threat in the magazine Rumiyah showed a photo of the Macy’s parade and called it “an excellent target,” as well as showed a photo of a U-Haul truck, calling it “an affordable weapon.”
“What they’re asking anyone who is following their propaganda to do is something low tech, low cost and potentially high impact,” Miller said. “The idea of renting a big truck and ramming it into the crowds is something that they find attractive.”
Last week, Miller assured New Yorkers the NYPD was prepared for the parade and, like other major events in the past, will have a “complex counterterrorism overlay,” including biohazard surveillance and vapor wake explosive detection dogs, or dogs that are trained to sniff out explosives in a crowd.
