and italian to offer a hymn of thanksgiving for the past year. it s been quite a year for this pope. from his trip to the middle east in march to his role brokering a deal to normalize relations between the u.s. and cuba. we are less than 13 hours from the start of 2015 on the east coast in the u.s. and, of course, that means the iconic ball drop in new york s times square. revellers have started to stake out their spots and the nypd is gearing up for a busy night of its own with counterterrorism teams, bomb-sniffing dogs helicopters all pressed into objection to keep as many as a million partiers safe. there will be hundreds of cameras, some of which are displayed on the screen in our joint operations center and monitored live via the nypd s doe maybe awareness system. reporter: layering on a new concern this year police are monitoring social media and keeping an eye out for protests that may arise following weeks of demonstration december manning an end to police