How NYPD keeps July Fourth celebrations safe

Before fireworks light up the sky tonight in New York, the city's police department is working behind the scenes and even at sea to keep people safe. Rebecca Weiner is the NYPD's deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism. What's your plan going into this holiday? So this is a significant deployment for us, second only to New Year's Eve in Times Square.

We took a ride with her on one of the many police boats monitoring the river.

In the Intel and Counterterrorism Bureau, we are protecting the city from land, of course, also from the skies, and importantly, given the nature of this event, from the sea.

That includes scanning for potential radioactive threats, like dirty bombs, with onboard sensors. All the radiation sensors that we have are capable of detecting even slight anomalies with radiation. That includes gamma radiation, that includes neutron radiation, which would be typical components to possibly have a dirty bomb.

Millions are expected to gather along the East River for tonight's fireworks, but it comes amid increasing tensions overseas, particularly in the Middle East since the start of the Israel-Gaza war. What's your biggest concern this holiday? So this is a really complicated threat environment. It has been heightened since October 7th. There's always the concern around lone actor threat.

The NYPD says it's deploying thousands of uniformed officers on the ground and a heavy presence in the skies. To people who are worried about being in a crowd or out in the city on the holiday, what would you say? You will see an enhanced police presence. We're here to keep you safe so that you just have to focus on looking at the fireworks. The Brooklyn Bridge will be closed for much of today. The fireworks display will launch from four barges stationed along the river. So far, the NYPD says there are no known credible threats to today's celebrations. Nikki Battiste, CBS News, New York.