NEW YORK — The chief of the New York Police Department says city police could take down a plane if necessary.
Commissioner Ray Kelly tells CBS' "60 Minutes" that after the Sept. 11 attacks, he decided the city couldn't rely on the federal government alone. He set about creating the NYPD's own counter-terrorism unit. He says the department is prepared for multiple scenarios and could even take down a plane.
Kelly didn't divulge details but said "obviously this would be in a very extreme situation."
Mayor Bloomberg was careful to point that, while the NYPD has anti-aircraft weapons, that doesn't neccessarily mean they could have prevented 9/11. "It's not my job to rehash history," he told the Post. "Our job is to make sure that we stay safe going forward and that we show that the terrorists didn't win and that New York City is back."
The mayor also added, coyly: "New York City Police Department has lots of capabilities you don't know about and you won't know about them."
Other measures include sending NYPD officers abroad, using radiation detectors and creating a network of surveillance cameras in Manhattan.
The interview airs Sunday evening. It comes two weeks after the tenth anniversary of 9/11, when hijackers flew planes into the World Trade Center and Pentagon.