Mayor Bloomberg Weighs In On Ray Kelly's NYPD Security Revelations
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Mayor Michael Bloomberg is weighing in on the startling revelations shared by his police commissioner during a "60 Minutes" interview that aired over the weekend.
Ray Kelly said the NYPD's counter-terrorism unit now has the capability to take down a plane.
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Following an education conference in Midtown on Monday, Bloomberg confirmed Kelly's claims but wasn't ready to say that having that capability could have prevented the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
"It certainly does not mean 9/11 wouldn't have occurred," Bloomberg said. He also added, "There's not any one technology, not any one weapon and you're not likely to have the same kind of attack the next time as you did in the past." "[The] New York City Police Department has lots of capabilities that you don't know about and you won't know about them and that's exactly what you want."
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The mayor said the city has spent $8.5 billion on the police department and thinks that it's "money well spent" -- adding that a number of terror plots against the city have been stopped.
However, he warns New Yorkers not to let their guard down saying,"I cannot guarantee that you're safe forever, or perfectly safe."
Kelly said in a televised interview Sunday night that the NYPD has the capability to stop another 9/11-style attack.
"I mean, in an extreme situation, we could have some means to take down a plane," Kelly revealed.
He did not expand on the comment.
Sources tell CBS 2, more specifically, that the NYPD's Aviation Unit would deploy those anti-aircraft weapons but it's unclear if they would be fired from the air or the ground.
The city also has other security efforts in place such as a video surveillance systems in Lower Manhattan that's so sophisticated it can isolate or track anything deemed suspicious – for examples, an abandoned packed or a person wearing a red shirt.
Do you feel safer knowing the NYPD has these capabilities? Sound off below...
