The San BernardinoPolice Department and some revealing acknowledgements about how he dealt with the biggest terror attack on u. S. Soil since 9 11 the isisinspired gun massacre in Southern California last december. And good morning, everyone. Welcome to upclose. Im bill ritter. New york city the top terror target in the country, and last week, after the brussels attacks, mayor de blasio riding the subways in an attempt to try to reassure new yorkers. Meanwhile, security boosted in subways and other major sites in the city. Nypd, of course, has its own very large counterterrorism unit, the biggest of any other city in the country. And new york, inarguably one of the bestprepared departments anywhere. At least thats what it says. Joining us this morning, nypds top uniformed officer, the chief of the department, james oneill, and, chief, thank you for joining us. Hi, bill. How are you . Is it me . Is it the paranoia . Is it the heightened sense of security . Is isis on the move in a way it hasnt been before . Bill, anytime anything happens anywhere in the world, nypd definitely as happened in paris the last time i spoke to you, in november, we ramped up security, and immediately after the attack in brussels, john miller woke me up at 4 30 in the morning i get up early, but thats a little earlier than i usually get up and we started the ball moving immediately. We do have it happened over the midnight, our time, so we were able to use resources that work through the midnight, and we were able to extend them. We also had the Critical Response command come they come in early anyway and a Strategic Response group, so were able to put out a number of uniforms quickly and immediately for that morning rush hour. But it is a reactive measure. Theres no question about that. Youre reacting to the news that isis attacked someone, you know, 4,000 miles away, 6,000 miles away, and not preventative like that. No. Its a small world. You know, anything that happens anywhere in the world, we know about it immediately, and its our obligation to make sure that we keep people safe in the city and make them feel safe, too. Correct me if im wrong, but when you had that, i thought it news conference, with miller and you and commissioner bratton, and the mayor was there. And john miller actually explained everything that happened woke you up, extended shifts, all that. I dont remember the details being disclosed like that, or am i just forgetting something . In the past, probably not, but i think its important for the people of this great city to know that were on top of this. Anything that happens, whether its in the city, whether its crime, whether its terrorismrelated, were gonna we take it seriously and we take affirmative steps immediately. We had the commissioner and the mayor riding the subways. Partly p. R. Gimmick . Yes, but its trying to make a point, and that point is what . I rode the subway up, too. Im an old transit cop. I think the subway is definitely a different environment than being up on the street. Being a transit cop, i know how important it is for people that ride the subway to feel safe, and i think once you see a uniform in there or if you see the commissioner or if you see the mayor in there, you get reassured that, okay, we are taking all steps necessary to okay. How much of a danger are we at in new york . Do you have any information . Everyone keeps saying, well, theres no defined threat, but you guys have certainly ramped up the security here. There is no credible threat right now, but, bill, between crime and terrorism, i dont get a lot of sleep. This is what i this is my life. Im here to make sure that we keep the people of this city safe, and i think that anytime anything happens, its important that we take the necessary steps. All right. Lets talk about what your response was to the brussels situation. Do you have troops over there studying what happened, trying to learn what happened . As part of our liaison program, we do have people in paris that are in brussels. All right. And they make an assessment of how the event was unfolded and then what the response was what the response was of the Brussels Police and of what we need to do to keep ourselves abreast of current tactics. Well, its not a secret that people and im not speaking for you, but a lot of experts say that the way the belgian authorities handled all this, they let themselves as the capital not only of the country in brussels but the capital of the whole European Union left themselves open to security flaws and they let people in who they were told were terrorists, and they werent ready for this. I dont know the specifics about what information that they knew about brussels, but i do know about how we process things and how we work with our federal partners in new york city and what extent we do to keep people safe here. Any actionable intelligence that we get here, we act on immediately. Well, the reports that at least two or three of these guys, the suicide bombers, were on some sort of terrorism database here in the United States and a terrorist watch list, at least one of them, here in the United States, has got to be disturbing. It is, but i dont know how many people are on that list. You know, you dont know how big of a universe that list is. And do they have the resources to make sure that theyre watching everyone . Okay. We did see, back here after brussels, that morning, we saw a lot of your hercules teams the guys in full armor and the automatic weapons and whatnot. Is that a deterrent, do you think . Because they dont become First Responders. If something happened, they could become first victims, right . Well, our First Responders would be our sector cops, our people that work out of precincts, if anything happened, radio. Its gonna come over 911, or they might be driving by. But the hercules teams consist of esu and highway, and their job is to get there as quickly has possible. But theyre also a deterrent. But in addition to that, we have our Critical Response command. They have long guns now, also. And we have our Strategic Response group. They have long guns, also. So, we have the ability to respond quickly and effectively. And tactically. The theory would be if you see something suspicious someone with a backpack that might become the suicide bomber youd want to get there before he acted, or she. Yeah, absolutely, and theres protocol in place that had to deal with that, and its a difficult situation, whether in any of our other specialized units. Its a scenario we dont want to see. I looked at your r\sum\. You were, in fact, what they used to call a transit cop at one point in your career, and there are Police Officers in various parts of the different kinds of authorities in new york city. Should there be and im asking this as a layperson and with all due respect. Should there be a more coordinated effort . Should there be one agency thats in charge of all that kind of security, like the nypd, at the Port Authority and everywhere no overlapping with the mta and the Port Authority . You know what . The relationship we have with the local authorities, the state agencies, the state police, the Port Authority police, the fbi, the department of Homeland Security we have excellent relationships. And i think the flow of information is as flawless as it can be, and thats something that commissioner bratton is a man who truly believes in collaboration, and it gets done. Well, and hes been in various departments, as well, and worked there, but under an ideal world, would we have one agency in charge of all of that . You know, its different its different missions. Its not just we dont just fight terrorism. Theres other things that we do. I mean, most of my time is spent on fighting crime in the city and keeping homicides and shootings down, so im not sure if that would be the best way to go. Commissioner bratton said Something Interesting during this whole thing last week. He said 40 of his time is spent on counterterrorism. Im not sure that many new yorkers understood that it was so much of his time. Uh, yeah, and im with the commissioner a lot, and were with commissioner miller and chief galati and chief waters all the time, so 40 , i think, would be a very accurate number. I think all of us who were here for 9 11 are very much aware how our awareness has changed, but you go through hills and valleys of this, in terms of awareness. How concerned should we be right now as new yorkers . I think were paying attention to everything that goes on throughout the world, and this is not just the nypd. This is a shared responsibility about everybody in new york city. Everybody needs to work to keep us safe. I know it sounds you hear it so much. If you see something, say it really has taken on a new meaning in this day and age. I know youre in charge of crime in the city, and we have about a minute left. I do want to ask you a question. Theres a lot of fear cause we see a lot of news stories about this, and i think people are talking about it of these slashings that are up. Theres no question that its increased this year. Right. Your departments doing Different Things now. Theres a new operation in play based on the old compstat thing where you fled the area where theres been an increase in stabbings. Are you worried about that . Whats the cause of this . Are we just hearing more about it . How do you feel about it . There is an increase. Theres about a 20 increase in slashings and stabbings, and we just unveiled operation cutting edge the other day. Its a new way to track the crime so we can deploy our resources. We found that at least 25 almost 25 , actually of these slashings and stabbings occur friday to saturday night, saturday night to sunday morning. No. Friday to saturday morning, saturday night to sunday morning, the overnights, and a lot of it has to do with alcohol, so were looking at restaurants, were looking at social clubs, legal and illegal. Thats where it seems to be. Over this past weekend, we had two or three major incidents there. Theres also were taking a look at the laws, making sure that all the cops know what the laws are, what you can carry, what you cant carry, what you can be arrested for, what you can be given a summons for. Is there a fever pitch of fear among new yorkers, or is it justified . The number of random attacks its small, but, you know, anytime theres an increase in crime here this is new york city people are concerned, as we are. And, you know, my job is to keep is to fight crime, and this is what we do. Well, we appreciate you coming on and talking about all this, and i know youre a believer in sort of transparency and liking to talk about this and telling us new yorkers how the Police Departments trying to protect us, so. Jimmy oneill is what your friends call you. Thats it. Thank you, chief. All right, bill. Take care. Good to see you again. Thanks. When we come back, the man in charge of responding to the biggest domesticterrorism attack in the u. S. Since 9 11 the police chief of San Bernardino. What happened to his city last december proves that terrorists like new york. We talk to that chief next. In new york state, we believe tomorrow starts today. 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It is not a big city in fact, there are 99 bigger cities in this country but it became the target for a married terrorist couple hooked up with isis who gunned down 14 people and hurt nearly 2 dozen others. No city is too small. I recently interviewed the chief of the San BernardinoPolice Department, jarrod burguan, and attack changed his community. You know, i think that, for the city, i think theres a little bit of maybe a strange dynamic in that it happened there and its become part of the citys identity and its a different part of the identity of the city. You know, the citys kind of known as being a bluecollar town, former air force town, railroad town. Certainly, its had its economic challenges. The citys in bankruptcy. And now, suddenly, to be known for this incident, i think, is a little surreal for the town. But from a recovery standpoint, i think people are pretty good. Its a little like i know new york after 9 11 2001 is very different than before 9 11. It redefined the city. I assume it has the same kind of impact there in San Bernardino. It has in many ways. It seems to be part of almost every conversation that you have. It seems to kind of permeate every bit of city business the fact that it happened, the fact that its part of the identity of the city. Have a city thats still kind of embroiled in its own internal issues. Financial problems . Financial problems persist. The citys still trying to find its way out of bankruptcy court, still trying to make some of those adjustments. So, as much as this incident is there and sometimes at the forefront of the discussion or its in the background of a discussion, its always there, yet the business of the city continues to go on, and some of the same historical issues that have been so difficult to overcome continue. Is this a little like a fog of war, though what happened that day and then the weeks afterwards . Oh, yeah. I would say so. You know, i get asked questions all the time about things that i may have said on day one or something that came out of an early press conference, and i havent had the chance to go back and look at all that tape and look at everything that we said, but people remind me all the time about something that may have happened that day that i have even kind of forgotten about. Well, we certainly remember. Squad, your team, your department surrounded the two shooters and captured them and killed them. It happened on our air. Pretty dramatic moment for Something Like that to take place basically on live tv and for the world to watch. And it did. And you became you went from being this lifelong Southern California person grew up in rialto, as i understand, and started in San Bernardino with the department when you were just 21 years old. You became an officer. So, 24 years ago, and, you know, thats a whole career youve already had, and now youve been launched into this sort of new public arena that i assume was new to you, right . Yeah, it is. You know, i spent some time i came up through the ranks in San Bernardino, and, to be honest with you, im one of those guys that started my career i just wanted to be a street cop, and i promoted naturally. I mean, i was competitive. I did all the things necessary to promote. Didnt necessarily have this lifelong dream to be a chief. Some of those things just fell in to place. Career as our p. I. O. , so i wasnt necessarily a stranger Public Information officer, if youre Public Information officer. Sorry. So, i wasnt necessarily a stranger to cameras or to talking to the press, but theres no doubt about it. This has been a different experience. This has been on a different level. There has been national and Even International attention because of this, and thats a different experience. And you handled it how would you grade yourself on how you handled this as the chief of police, if you were judging it from our point of view . Can you do that . If i was if i would never have seen anything and i had no feedback from how we handled it, i had just simply gone out there, did what we did, and then had no feedback from anybody, i would have given myself probably a c or a b, cause it was chaotic and it was a difficult situation. I realize that it was perceived much more positively by folks in terms of how it was handled, how it was managed, how the publicmessaging component came out of it, and, of course, the know, you could hope for, under the circumstances, which helped kind of paint the picture as to what that day was. But i realize it was perceived quite a bit better by folks on the outside looking in. I think it was, and well go in to that a little bit, but im much more interested in why you, who i assume is your own toughest critic and youre selfcritical why you think you got a c. What would you have done differently than you did . Well, when youre up there and youre doing press conferences, its almost impossible to know all the answers, to be able to answer everybodys question, and its very difficult to try to craft that messaging in the right way, and so, when youre in the middle of it, its chaotic, its difficult, and its hard to kind of assess how everything that youre saying and everything that youre doing how its being perceived. And i think, for me, you talked about it being a fog. Things were happening so quickly and stuff that there were just a lot of moments that i didnt necessarily remember. What did you do that you didnt think you should have cause im guessing that, as the chief of police there, in the middle of this, in this fog, as its still unfolding, the thing you dont necessarily want to be doing is talking to reporters. You want to be trying to solve this crime that was still going on. Yeah. You know, we really prioritize things. First of all, i think you got to trust your folks. So, when youre in the middle of Somet