The New York City Police Department and other law enforcement personnel responded to a threat from ISIS after someone re-released a September 2014 message that tells followers to “rise up and kill intelligence officers, police officers, soldiers, and civilians.”
The threat named the United States, France, Australia and Canada as targets.
In an internal memo, NYPD employees were told to “remain alert and consider tactics at all times while on patrol,” especially in light of the attacks in France last week.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a similar bulletin to law enforcement across the country. That bulletin and the NYPD memo make it clear that this new message is consistent with previous threats that ISIS and others, including al Qaeda, have issued.
John Miller, the NYPD deputy commissioner for counterterrorism, tempered fears of a threat to officials in New York City.
“I don’t think that we are under any more threat … or any less threat than we were the day before,” he said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
Miller said the department is on a “heightened security posture on a normal day compared to almost any other police department.”
More than 1,000 police officers and civilian analysts are assigned to a counterterrorism mission every day, and officers have studied the recent attacks in France, he said.
France was hit with three days of terror after three suspects killed 17 civilians in multiple attacks last week.
by agencies