NYPD Officers to Train as 9/11 Memorial Guards

Hundreds of cops are expected to begin training next month to be part of the security cordon around the World Trade Center site, NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said Monday.

The officers will receive special instruction in first responder action to handle any emergencies or incidents when the Sept. 11 Memorial opens on the 10th anniversary this year of the terror attacks, Kelly said.

Policing the memorial, an above-ground tree-lined plaza surrounding two waterfalls within the footprints of the twin towers, will be a challenge, Kelly said, because it lies within what is essentially a massive construction site in which the number and height of buildings are increasing. Only one skyscraper -- 7 World Trade Center -- is finished. An underground museum is being constructed beneath the memorial and is expected to be finished in September 2012.

As more buildings are completed, the NYPD expects to have a full complement of about 650 officers assigned to the area.

Kelly's remarks came after a special conference at police headquarters where security and law enforcement officials were told by one terrorism expert that al-Qaida wants to strike a "crippling blow" to New York to punish the United States for killing Osama bin Laden last month.

Stephen R. Kappes, a retired CIA official now a security consultant in Massachusetts, told the officials that in the post-bin Laden world, a major terrorism threat is likely to come in the form of self-radicalized Muslims acting as individuals.

"I think their desperation should not be treated lightly," said Kappes.

Kelly said the NYPD and federal officials don't know of any specific terrorist threat to New York City or the metropolitan area. But he agreed that the NYPD had to maintain its vigilance after bin Laden's death.

McClatchy-Tribune News Service