New York Police Learn from Mumbai Attacks

by Mickey McCarter

Officers of the New York Police Department (NYPD) traveled to Mumbai last month to examine the methods used by terrorists in the attacks there on Nov. 26, 2008, and have incorporated lessons learned from the attacks into the department's training, New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told the US Senate Thursday.

Police recruits first received training in three types of heavy weapons last month, based on the department's observations of the kinds of weapons used by terrorists in the Mumbai attacks, Kelly said. Earlier that month, the department conducted a tactical drill for its Emergency Service Unit and a tabletop exercise based on the attacks.

"In the exercise with our command staff, we raised the possibility that we might have to deploy our Emergency Service officers too thinly in the event of multiple simultaneous attacks such as those in Mumbai," Kelly testified before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. "We also recognized that if the attacks continued over many hours, we would need to relieve our special units with rested officers. In response to both challenges, we have decided to provide heavy weapons training to experienced officers in our Organized Crime Control Bureau."

The officers visiting Mumbai toured the crime scenes and quizzed police authorities in India, Kelly explained. They realized that the terrorists, suspected to be part of Islamic group Lashkar-e-Taiba, had trained well and sometimes new the layout of buildings they targeted better than police forces did. In response to that observation, New York City police offices have been touring hotels and other major facilities in the city to improve their familiarity with buildings that could be targets of terrorist attacks.

Kelly raised concerns that the Mumbai attacks marked a shift in strategy for a major terrorist attack.

"From the perspective of the New York City Police Department, one of the most important aspects of this attack was the shift in tactics from suicide bombs to a commando-style military assault with small teams of highly trained, heavily armed operatives launching simultaneous, sustained attacks," he stated. "They fanned out across the city in groups of two and four. They carried AK-56 assault rifles, a Chinese manufactured copy of the Russian AK-47."

The highly coordinated assault killed six Americans, including two New Yorkers. Mindful that the attackers entered Mumbai via small boats, Kelly emphasized that the city's harbor police have weapons training and sends divers to inspect vessels.

New York police also keep updated on security developments in their city through special partnerships, including NYPD Shield, an alliance between the department and private security managers in New York City; Operation Nexus, which includes businesses that terrorists might attempt to exploit; and Security our Cities, a Department of Homeland Security initiative to place radiation monitors around the city's perimeter.