after a truck plowed into it crowd of people in nice. nypd officials say that attack is why they are using blocker vehicles and sand trucks. had the attention what s going on. not just in the city but in the nation and in the world. in washington d.c., hundreds of thousands of people are expected to watch fireworks at the national mall and police say they are well prepared. we don t talk about that specifically in public because people who may want to do harm to the district of columbia are also listening. that is the message please have. they say go do things with your family. have fun but if you see something out of place, say something. thank you. new jersey parks and beaches are closed this weekend as the state grapples with the government shutdown. governor chris christie in a standoff that the state legislature overspending. he points the finger at democrats and orders lawmakers back into session.
attack like we saw overseas. the nypd does stress no credible threat here in new york city or times square. also 100 blocker vehicles, that s double the number from years past. 7,000 nypd officers will be around the city. that includes 550 new graduates and in addition, 65 viewing pens. each pen is to be filled with 3,000 spectators. you can see things in times square, still a bit empty out here. the crowds start arriving in probably the next hour or two, yes, they do arrive that early even though the ball drop isn t until midnight. but when they do get here, they ll be going through bag searches. they ll be going through security screening and radiation screening. there will be very visible hef weapons team, water craft is patrolling the waterways around manhattan and up above helicopters. in addition, at 1 pp, the
something very important about the national id card. if you institute that, those who mean us harm will work their way around it. i think that s what we re up against. if you secure the airports, if you secure times square, what about different stadiums? what about shopping malls? there s always going to be a soft target for them to hit. my view is i think the much bigger threat to my well being is a government that spends 4 trillion dollars a year allegedly to make me better off. that s a much bigger threat to me. let s talk about what new york is spending here for a second, bill. 7,000 police officers who are going to be on duty tonight. 65 sand trucks and 100 other what they re calling blocker vehicles so you can t have what happened in nice or what happened in germany. helicopters, 65 fueling pins, they call these pins in which they fuel the hundreds of us thats of visitors. is that enough, too much or what?
threat out here. again, there is no credible threat against times square or new york city itself, all of these are precautions, they ll have 100 blocker vehicles, also 7,000 police officers stationed throughout the city. including 550 new graduates from the police academy. in addition 65 pens are set up like this one and they will be filled to capacity, expecting upwards of 3,000 people in each of these pens. i talked to some of those hearty people who have been waiting out here already for hours. we all live together at usf and so we planned this trip out a year ago and so we re really excited. we ve been looking forward to the ball drop since last new year s. i m looking forward to watching the ball drop with five of my really good friends. reporter: already the pens have begun to fill up. the people trickling in throughout the day and waiting for that ball drop at midnight.
detectors, radiation detectors, some dogs going through the crowds, looking for any potential bomb residue or anything like that. choppers in the air. one thing that s different this year, 65 garbage trucks to complement the 100 police cars. they will act as blocker vehicles to prevent any vehicle from entering the perimeter of times square. they don t want to see anything like what happened in berlin and in niece earlier this year. i have a group from charlotte, north carolina. they came all the way overnight on a greyhound bus. jennifer and colin and jessica, maid of honor. you guys just got married, decided to come here for the honeymoon. why? we just wanted to do something special for the first new year of a marriage. so we decide today come watch the ball drop. reporter: so you took the greyhound bus all night. you wi you ll watch the ball drop and get back on the bus to go back. at 1:00 a.m. reporter: why is it so special be here and watch the