NYPD in Negotiations  To Take Over Security at WTC Site
NY1 NEWS, March 26, 2008

The NYPD is pushing to take over all security operations at the World Trade Center  site from the Port Authority. 

A Port Authority spokesperson says that police officials are in negotiations to gain  control over the entire 16-acre site, 
except for the PATH train area. 

A source familiar with the negotiations  tells the paper that Police Commissioner Ray Kelly has argued privately that the 
Port Authority is ill-equipped to supervise a site that's been the site of two terrorist attacks. 

The plan would reportedly allow the NYPD to design and staff all vehicle barriers  and checkpoints. More than 500 
officers would guard the site, with nearly a thousand more handling screening operations. 

Banks and other businesses would be required to provide a private security force of 1,200 guards and screeners.

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

NYPD Pushing to  Run all Security at Ground Zero
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 26, 2008
By Alison Gendar and Dougas  Feiden 
Daily News Staff Writers 


The NYPD is moving to seize control of Ground Zero - the most vulnerable 16 acres of real estate in  America, the Daily 
News has learned.

Police brass want to run all security operations at the World Trade Center footprint amid mounting concerns about 
protecting the site from terror attacks.

Secret plans call for the NYPD to take charge of  security personnel, screening, checkpoints and technology, officials 
briefed on the operation said. The Port Authority now controls security at the site.

Police officials are in negotiations with the bistate agency over an arrangement to give the NYPD control  over the entire 
site except for the PATH train,  a city official said.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly has argued privately that the Port Authority is ill-equipped to supervise  a complex 
security grid at a site that terrorists have twice attacked, a source familiar with the negotiations said.

Raw emotions and memories of lost comrades on both sides are fueling the debate. On 9/11, the Port Authority Police 
Department lost 37 officers and the NYPD lost 23 officers.

The move follows a Feb. 24 story by The News documenting security vulnerabilities downtown, including poor  planning for 
truck screening and designs for three skyscrapers - Towers 2, 3 and 4 - that are too close to city streets, have too much 
glass and fail to meet stringent Department of Defense bomb-blast standards.


Three days later, Kelly and Deputy Commissioner  for Counter-Terrorism Richard Falkenrath huddled  behind closed doors 
with Mayor Bloomberg to brief  him on their takeover proposal, sources with knowledgeof the meeting said.

They outlined a proposal to push aside the 1,600-member Port Authority police force, which controls access  to the site, and 
transfer oversight  "comprehensively  and permanently" to the 35,000-member NYPD  by "law and memorandum of agreement,"  
those sources said.

Essentially, the NYPD offered to allow developers to build Towers 2, 3 and 4 to less-stringent security standards in return for 
control over the site.

Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne would not  confirm or deny details of the security proposal.
 
Browne said it was clear the NYPD would police any streets in the WTC complex. He said there have been discussions with 
the Port Authority on how that will be done.

Port Authority officials declined comment on the specifics of the NYPD takeover proposal.

"We're very confident the entire rebuilt WTC site - every building, every square inch - will operate with an unprecedented level of 
safety and security," said Candace McAdams, a Port Authority spokeswoman.

The plan to wrest control was hatched at 1 Police  Plaza by the elite counterterrorism squad, which reports directly to Kelly.

Among the highlights, the NYPD would:

• Design and staff all vehicle barriers and checkpoints. This would effectively transfer to  the NYPD total access to the site from 
the four roadways that encircle it - West, Church, Liberty  and Vesey Sts. - as well as the subterranean approach 
from a planned vehicle checkpoint. 

• Devise minimum staffing levels to blanket  Ground Zero with a small army of security personnel. There would be 525 NYPD 
officers to guard the site and 950 additional cops to handle mandated security  screening operations. 

• Make banks, brokerage houses and other businesses shell out for private security. They would be required to maintain a 
private security force of 1,200 guards and security screeners - all paid for by the tenants. 

Driving the plan are growing NYPD concerns about security flaws in three signature World Trade Center  office towers fronting 
Church St. that developer Larry Silverstein expects to complete by 2012, officials confirmed.

Tower 2 - a 79-story, 1,270-foot colossus that  will be taller than the Empire State Building - and Towers 3 and 4 will all be built 
to counterterror standards that are much lower than the fortified Freedom Tower nearby.