Police: New York buildings need tighter security
By TOM HAYS
Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK (AP) - Managers and developers of high-profile skyscrapers, sports stadiums and other buildings in the city need to take more steps to guard against terrorist attacks, according to a new report by the New York Police Department.
“The same qualities that make the city’s buildings recognized icons of design, culture and commerce also make them continuous targets of terrorism,” Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said in a foreword for the report.
The report, distributed Wednesday at a meeting with private security officials, doesn’t name the buildings the NYPD believes are at highest risk for car bombings or other types of attacks. But the Empire State Building and New York Stock Exchange as well as the Freedom Tower planned for the former World Trade Center site have been cited in the past as potential targets.
Stadiums and arenas also present unique security challenges, the report says. After the briefing, Kelly said designers of Citi Field and the new Yankee Stadium had consulted with department’s Counterterrorism Bureau to meet NYPD security standards.
Kelly told reporters that the report and other efforts by the nation’s largest police department to fortify the city against attacks is based on intelligence that it remains at risk. Police officials claim that since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, there’s evidence of at least 10 plots targeting the city.
“This is where terrorists want to come, if they can,” the commissioner said.
The report offers a formula for measuring the vulnerability of buildings to attacks based on design, prominence and proximity to landmarks and other more likely targets. As an example, it cites the destruction of a smaller World Trade Center building caused by the collapse of one of the twin towers in 2001.
High-risk buildings should use securely fixed “anti-ram” columns to harden their perimeters, the report says. Large explosions, it says, cause ordinary concrete barriers or planters to shatter and create a shrapnel-like hazard. It also says builders should reduce the risk of broken glass by positioning glass facades away from nearby landmarks, and by using fewer windows on lower floors.
The report warns that blueprints and floor plans could fall into the wrong hands. Vulnerable buildings, it says, “should allow access to documents containing sensitive security information only on an as-needed basis, and should conduct background checks on all individuals granted such access.”
The NYPD’s concerns about the risk of truck bomb attacks against landmark sites forced the redesign in 2005 of the Freedom Tower after it said the 1,776-foot (541-meter) skyscraper’s open lobby and proximity to the street made it a likely terrorist target. The building, which had a cornerstone laid a year earlier that had to be moved, was delayed by three years and redesigned at a cost of millions of dollars.
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