NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- New counterterrorism teams, one with a bomb-sniffing dog named Clipper, started patrolling the subways on Thursday as part of a federally funded security initiative.
1010 WINS AUDIO: Stan Brooks reports
The police units, part of a new program called Operation TORCH, will focus on major transit hubs, including Times Square, Herald Square and Grand Central Terminal, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.
1010 WINS VIDEO: Machine Gun-Toting Officers in NYC Subways
The program, funded by part of the $151 million in U.S. Homeland Security funds granted in February for New York, Connecticut and New Jersey, is designed to bolster about 2,600 officers assigned to the New York Police Department's transit bureau.
``Our transit system has been targeted unsuccessfully,'' said Kelly, noting an August 2004 bomb plot at Herald Square. ``And of course we know of successful attacks throughout the world in subways.''
``We've done more than any other transit system in the world, by far, to prevent another attack,'' Kelly said. ``...Our transit system is as safe as it's ever been and I can assure you that it's our intention to keep it that way.''
At a press conference Thursday, Clipper was flanked by helmeted emergency service officers, their index fingers poised near the triggers of their machine guns.
The subway system, which transports some 5 million people a day, receives ``many threats,'' Kelly noted. ``It ebbs and flows. Of course, it's difficult to measure ... or judge the credibility of these reports.''
In recent years, similar, so-called Hercules units _ distinguished by their special black uniforms, helmets and body armor _ have patrolled above ground as part of the NYPD's response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
The police department's transit division already conducts random bag checks _ 48,000 since 2005 _ and inspects subway tunnels and ventilation systems in search of explosives. Hidden cameras register any suspicious action.
Kelly said that if the new, two-year program is successful, the city will seek more funding to continue it.
Straphangers had mixed reactions.
``If it's going to keep me from being robbed at gunpoint, then I'm alright with it. Or, you know, killed in a terrorist act,'' said Hillel Skolnik.
``I find it kind of scary. ... The idea of people with guns all around doesn't actually make me feel safer for some reason,'' countered Carol Ann Daniel of Brooklyn.
``It's not that I don't like them making sure. I don't want to see it,'' Daniel said as Clipper's bark ricocheted around the subway station. ``It kind of feels like you're in a war zone.''
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