the trains. they will see more officers on the platforms. they should expect more bag checks at more stations. they will be canines, explosive detecting canines in the subway system and heavy weapons teams from our strategic response group as well as our critical response command will be deployed to major hubs and other stations throughout the city. there was some traffic closures that remain in effect. i would like to point out. the west side highway from 14th to the tunnel remains an active crime scene and we anticipate it will be closed until early this evening. so we ve assigned traffic agents to the area but motorists, please avoid that area. we re just a few days away from the new york city marathon which over 51,000 runners will participate as the commissioner said 2 1/2 million spectators
will line the streets in all the burroughs in our city. we ve enhanced security for this also. it will be a very safe event. we ve added more sand trucks, more blocker vehicles. i can t give you the exact number. it will be the most ever deployed at this event. we more than doubled our observation teams, our rooftop observation posts as well as our counter sniper teams from the emergency services unit throughout the boroughs, not just manhattan and added heavy weapons teams throughout the city. from our emergency services unit, strategic response group and critical response command will be at fixed locations along the route but they will also have a mobile response capability. if they are needed elsewhere. and this increase will supplement the already large, substantial detail of unformed officers that you ll see along the route.
now been trained to do which is the first patrol officers responded and then they send in the srg, their strategic response command which is this group of heavily armed officers themselves with rifles, semi automatic rifles, and their job is to enter in to that building and quickly confront whoever is shooting. there has been some conflicting reports about smoke on some of the floors where the shooting activity may have taken place. right now that is under investigation. it doesn t appear to have been a fire in the building and obviously as we ve been looking he did pictures, there are no visible signs ever smoof smoke flames. we know that he was a former employee of this hospital. do we have anything more about his background, why he left the hospital, why or not anyone knew he was disgruntled before this happened? sure prp the investigative unit has gone through new york state medical records. we can t find anything that is a flag as far as his past. if he was a doctor that perha
here s what new york city mayor bill de blasio had to say. when incidents occur such as the one in london last night, we put our special units such as a critical response command, on key duty at locations around the city, particularly well traveled, particularly prominent, all relate to the attack that was undertaken. that means new yorkers today will see a heavier presence at key locations around the city. you will see a stronger police presence including our counter-ter are forces. martin, this is not something unusual, this is something we have seen far too often unfortunately in recent years. you re right about that. we also know people take to social media to communicate. a lot of celebrities have been talking about this as well? that s exactly right. we have had tweets from oprah and mariah carey offering condolences and the we also had
is the bomb squad, radiation detection, network of camera systems, the explosive detection dogs, the biohazard detection devices, or the intelligence bureau which is the investigations, the sources of information. layer 1, office was armed with long guns visible to the public regarding the tower. together with the secret service the counterterrorism trigger critical response command has every step covered. layer 2, not so visible nypd counter sniper teams. and we got an exclusive behind the scenes look at how they train using a magnified on an assault rifle. 200 yards, the magnified scope allows us to center our target and a 200 yards just as if it was 25 feet away. we prepare everything from the situations so we would take the 200 yard shot, anything from a