By Marcus Solis
(New York-WABC, August 18, 2004) - An Eyewitness News exclusive -- details on the incredible lengths the NYPD is taking to keep the most radical protestors expected at the Republican Convention under control.
Police are now tracking 56 potentially dangerous people.
Marcus Solis reports from Madison Square Garden.
While international terrorism remains a concern, this operation's focus is primarily on anarchists, and how they plan to disrupt the convention. This week the NYPD began instructing officers on intelligence on this threat. They also began doling out assignments, and for hundreds of officers that means surveillance work that will begin next week. And it starts for them with a trip out of town.
The debriefings have been taking place at John Jay College and the Police Academy. Inside, the NYPD's intelligence division is outlining security plans for the upcoming Republican National Convention.
The big concern: the anarchist groups which disrupted the W.T.O conference in Seattle in 1999, and who have threatened to do the same here. Sources say the NYPD has identified 56 primary anarchists who will be followed 24 hours a day. One supervisor and six cops will be assigned to each person.
Sources say detectives are leaving this weekend for Boston, Washington D.C., North Carolina, and California to begin surveillance and tail the protestors as they travel to New York.
Sources also say the department is preparing for protestors in Central Park, convinced many demonstrators will descend on the Great Lawn on Sunday, August 29th, regardless of whether a permit is granted.
Another concern are small explosions set off in Midtown, aimed at diverting manpower away from the convention site. Police have already been holding drills where cops simulate a coordinated response called a surge.
Much of the intelligence has come from NYPD cops who have infiltr ated various protest groups. Sources say for nearly two years, as many as 20 cops have been meeting with, traveling with, and secretly reporting on the activists' plans.
On Thursday, the department will demonstrate training the training that officers are receiving in arrest tactics. That is for uniformed officers, but the bulk of the undercover work is to be handled by the department's narcotics officers.
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