NYPD can shoot down an airliner?

"New York police chief Ray Kelly raised eyebrows on the CBS show "60 Minutes" Sunday when he said his police department has the means to knock an airplane out of the sky."

"On Monday, in response to questions from reporters, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said, “The NYPD has lots of capabilities that you don’t know about and you won’t know about.” "

These two citations are taken from this article:


Three questions:
What anti-air capability can NYPD have?
Does anyone know of similar capabilities with the police services of other cities in the World?

And most important:
What remains of public accountability if a police service can have "lots of capabilities that you don’t know about and you won’t know about"?

Unless some terrorist is going to loiter around in an aircraft advertising what's going to happen, they probably wouldn't have a window to shoot down an aircraft. In Hawaii when lava flows from volcanoes, the government makes no effort to turn the flow in any direction. Why? They can be held liable for any damage and casualties that result from such an action. Can you imagine the liability in all directions if they shot an airliner down over New York City?

I saw that interview and the whole news store. If you saw the set up for the interview they talk about the surge tactics of randomly flooding areas of NYC with cops in the attempt to dissuade potential attacks. The commissioners and mayor comments could be a red herring.

But if not if you remember during the piece when they were showing off the command center they had liaisons from ever possible federal agency. For all we know the NYPD might have a battery of AAA maned by the US military where the commissioner or mayor have the authority order the take down and not have to wait for a green light from Washington.

We mustn't forget the NYPD is probably the only city police agency on the planet that has it's own intelligence officers stationed around the world.

Don't make too much out of that. For a big police department it's fine to have a big sniper rifle and than take that on a police helo. And possible to attack a terrorist plane. A small, slow flying one I'd assume.
Still a nice look, a helo dogfighting with a Cessna 152 using a big cal. sniper rifle

Kelly: NYPD can blow planes out of sky
By LARRY CELONA - Last Updated: 8:54 AM, September 26, 2011

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly dropped a bombshell last night — the NYPD has weapons powerful enough to blow a rogue aircraft out of the sky. [..]
Police sources told The Post that the weapon that Kelly was referring to involves a Barret .50 caliber rifle, which can be mounted on almost any police chopper. ...

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Is it possible for them to operate stinger like portable missiles around important landmarks?

no_name said:

Is it possible for them to operate stinger like portable missiles around important landmarks?

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AAA or stinger, what I worring is not the "shot the airliner" part, but the "airliner crush down" part. How the hell anyone (even the military) control how an airliner is going to crush, especially let's assume the cabin has been controlled by some nuts who trying to nail the biggest "target" he can reach at that point?

Well if we're talking about the terrorist not just targeting popular places but actually important targets like the white house or the capitol, then I don't think they can care that much about where the plane crashes, as long as it's not the desired target.

no_name said:

Well if we're talking about the terrorist not just targeting popular places but actually important targets like the white house or the capitol, then I don't think they can care that much about where the plane crashes, as long as it's not the desired target.

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You should be glad you are not a polititian, or you surely gonna out of job. Joking.

IMO the window for PROPERLY shot down a hijacke airliner is so narrow that it can only be done by Air Force, out at sea / coast. NYPD got the authority to shot down airliner is the same like issuing every cop a field scoop and declare they have the authority to set up defensive positions at times they deem fit - Sure, authority acknowledged, but not the effeciancy.

They could be stationing anti-air assets around the perimeter of the city (or even outside). If the plane is reported to be hijacked, and it's flying toward NYC, then they can take it out before it enters the city.

You mean over Newark, NJ?