this all the time fun. the learning the virtue of sharing fun. why let someone else have all the fun? that's no fun. unleash the power of dough. give it a pop. >> this is... >> a warning for any and all americans traveling to europe this spring after the deadly terror attacks in brussels. investigators now say the same isis terror cell that carried out the bombings in brussels pulled off the deadly attacks in paris last year. the nypd immediately stepping up security here in new york city and sending more officers to europe to learn about the terror attacks there. this morning, the chief of the department for the nypd, james o'neill, joins us to talk about security here, there, and the worldwide fight against isis.

the san bernardino police department and some revealing acknowledgements about how he dealt with the biggest terror attack on u.s. soil since 9/11 -- the isis-inspired gun massacre in southern california last december. and good morning, everyone. welcome to "upclose." i'm 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 best-prepared departments anywhere. at least that's what it says. joining us this morning, nypd's top uniformed officer, the chief of the department, james o'neill, 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 hasn't 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 that's 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 we're able to put out a number of uniforms quickly and immediately for that morning rush hour. >> but it is a reactive measure. there's no question about that. you're reacting to the news that isis attacked someone, you know, 4,000 miles away, 6,000 miles away, and not preventative like that. >> no. it's a small world. you know, anything that happens anywhere in the world, we know about it immediately, and it's our obligation to make sure that we keep people safe in the city and make them feel safe, too. >> correct me if i'm 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 don't remember the details being disclosed like that, or am i just forgetting something? >> in the past, probably not, but i think it's important for the people of this great city to know that we're on top of this. anything that happens, whether it's in the city, whether it's crime, whether it's terrorism-related, we're 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 it's trying to make a point, and that point is what? >> i rode the subway up, too. i'm 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, there's 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 don't get a lot of sleep. this is what i -- this is my life. i'm here to make sure that we keep the people of this city safe, and i think that anytime anything happens, it's important that we take the necessary steps. >> all right. let's 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, it's not a secret that

people -- and i'm 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 weren't ready for this. >> i don't 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 don't know how many people are on that list. you know, you don't know how big of a universe that list is. and do they have the resources to make sure that they're 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 don't 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. it's 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 they're 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 -- you'd want to get there before he acted, or she. >> yeah, absolutely, and there's protocol in place that had to deal with that, and it's a difficult situation, whether

in any of our other specialized units. it's a scenario we don't 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 i'm asking this as a layperson and with all due respect. should there be a more coordinated effort? should there be one agency that's 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 that's something that commissioner bratton is a man who truly believes in collaboration, and it gets done. >> well, and he's 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, it's different

it's different missions. it's not just -- we don't just fight terrorism. there's 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 i'm 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. i'm not sure that many new yorkers understood that it was so much of his time. >> uh, yeah, and i'm with the commissioner a lot, and we're 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 we're 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 you're in charge of crime in the city, and we have about a minute left. i do want to ask you a question. there's 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. there's no question that it's increased this year. >> right. >> your department's doing different things now. there's a new operation in play based on the old compstat thing where you fled the area where there's been an increase in stabbings. are you worried about that? what's the cause of this? are we just hearing more about it? how do you feel about it? >> there is an increase. there's about a 20% increase in slashings and stabbings, and we just unveiled operation cutting edge the other day. it's 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 we're looking at

restaurants, we're looking at social clubs, legal and illegal. that's where it seems to be. over this past weekend, we had two or three major incidents there. there's also -- we're taking a look at the laws, making sure that all the cops know what the laws are, what you can carry, what you can't 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 -- it's small, but, you know, anytime there's 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 you're a believer in sort of transparency and liking to talk about this and telling us new yorkers how the police department's trying to protect us, so... "jimmy o'neill" is what your friends call you. >> that's 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 domestic-terrorism attack in the u.s. since 9/11 -- the police chief of san bernardino. what happened to his city last december proves that terrorists

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>> welcome back to "upclose." "it cannot happen here." that thought will likely never cross the minds of the good people of san bernardino, an hour east of los angeles. 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 bernardino police department, jarrod burguan, and

attack changed his community. >> you know, i think that, for the city, i think there's a little bit of maybe a strange dynamic in that it happened there and it's become part of the city's identity and it's a different part of the identity of the city. you know, the city's kind of known as being a blue-collar town, former air force town, railroad town. certainly, it's had its economic challenges. the city's 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. >> it's 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 it's part of the identity of the city.

have a city that's still kind of embroiled in its own internal issues. >> financial problems? >> financial problems persist. the city's 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 it's in the background of a discussion, it's 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 haven't 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, that's a whole career you've already had, and now you've 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, i'm 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. didn't 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 wasn't necessarily a stranger -- >> public information officer, if you're -- >> public information officer. sorry. so, i wasn't necessarily a stranger to cameras or to talking to the press, but there's 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 that's 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 public-messaging 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 we'll go in to that a little bit, but i'm much more interested in why you, who i assume is your own toughest critic and you're self-critical -- why you think you got a "c." what would you have done differently than you did? >> well, when you're up there and you're doing press conferences, it's almost impossible to know all the answers, to be able to answer everybody's question, and it's very difficult to try to craft that messaging in the right way, and so, when you're in the middle of it, it's chaotic, it's difficult, and it's hard to kind of assess how everything that you're saying and everything that you're doing -- how it's 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 didn't necessarily remember. >> what did you do that you didn't think you should have

'cause i'm guessing that, as the chief of police there, in the middle of this, in this fog, as it's still unfolding, the thing you don't 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 you're in the middle of something like that, you can't expect that, as the police chief, you're gonna be calling all the shots and you're gonna be directing everybody. you've got to surround yourself with good people. you've got to surround yourself with competent people. we had guys handling the tactical component of the searches. we had guys that were handling the investigative component and following up on leads. there was tremendous work that went into place from the folks that were taking a little tidbit of information and they started to build upon that to develop suspect information, to connect the dots, so to speak, and that wasn't being done because a police chief was saying, "okay, do this. now do this. now do this." this is just good work being done by not just cops. these were civilians in the

were doing phenomenal work. but you prioritize things, and when you have something of this scale and this magnitude, this was one of those things where people need to see the police chief, and it was important to get out there and try to get out in front of this thing as much as possible and be as transparent as we possibly could. >> how was it relating to the fbi there? i say this with some background here, and that is that after 9/11, the nypd started its own big launch of a new antiterrorism/counterterrorism force and became its own little world, really -- a huge part of its budget every year -- there was some tension, certainly at the beginning, between the fbi and the nypd. i think they've -- they say they've worked a lot of that out. what was it like when they came in? >> so, in our area, we have regional fusion centers that are a combination of fbi and local folks that are taking information and doing very similar things to what you're talking about on the local level here in new york. but where we are, it's a little

don't think that there's too many people that are butting heads at that level. for the most part, they work pretty well together. in this particular incident -- and i give a great deal of credit to the fbi for the way that they've managed this -- they came in from the very beginning, and they said, "listen, based upon everything that we know and based upon what you guys are telling us, this is a local event. this is your investigation. we are here in a support role." now, we all understood that as it evolved, it could very well evolve into a federal investigation. it could take on a much bigger stage, so to speak. >> and it did. >> and it did. >> yeah. >> but the fbi made it very clear that they were there in a support role. they were there to do anything that they could for us, and if and when the day came that we needed to turn it over to them, we would still be part of the process and we'd be partners. and i give them credit for that, because they could have come in with a much different attitude and made it more difficult, so to speak. >> was the san bernardino police department, your department, prepared for a situation like this? there has been a lot of sort of

quarterbacking -- use all the clich\s -- that you weren't ready in terms of firepower, in terms of protection for your troops, everything else. >> sure. when you have these, you do debriefs, and you try to learn from them. and we -- we're gonna take some lessons out of this and use this as an opportunity to better equip some of our officers. >> which will cost a lot more money. >> it will cost more money. and, you know, believe it or not, we've got our local business community that's really stepped up and said, "hey, we want to help with this." so, we've actually got some businesses in town that are leading some fundraising efforts to donate to the foundation that will, in turn, buy some of the equipment. >> right, 'cause for the city to do it, well, it's in bankruptcy. it's gonna be a hard sell to taxpayers to say, "you know, we weren't ready." "well, wait a minute. what do you need -- more tanks? everyone to wear bulletproof vests?" which i was a little surprised many of them did not have, right? >> yeah. now, they have bulletproof vests issued to them. >> bullet-resistant vests, i should say. >> bullet-resistant vests. but some of the initial officers that responded -- detectives and administrative folks that left their offices and went down there -- weren't necessarily wearing body armor that day.

uniformed folks that arrived, for the most part, had soft body armor, which is not real effective against a rifle round. >> right. >> and, as a result of that, we will make a push to try to push out some better protection that's at least available to them to be able to put on in the event they're going in to something significant. >> but the iphone that belonged to this county worker-turned-terrorist is at the center of this enormous debate which is profound, because it affects not just that one iphone but privacy in general. you have a position on this? and i read somewhere where you said you don't think that phone has anything anyway inside it. >> yeah. i had made a statement in one of the interviews that i did when i said it's entirely possible that there's nothing of value on the phone. but where that came from was concern that the discussion that i was watching take place in the media and in the public over this issue is that there was this degree of certainty that there was evidence of terrorism on that phone and the federal government had to get into that phone. the reality is we don't know. we've also got a duty and responsibility to leave no stone

can for the victims, do everything we can to solve this case, and if, in the event, there are co-conspirators or there is evidence that may suggest motive or something of that nature that may be on that phone, we've got a duty and a responsibility to go in there. and we have to remember, too, that in this case, you have all three magic pills, so to speak, on why the government or why the police would need to do something. you have probable cause. you have consent. it was a county-owned phone, and the county has said, "absolutely. go in there and do whatever you want." >> it wasn't this guy's phone. >> it wasn't his phone. and you have a warrant. you have all three of it -- all three items at least present in this case. and so, you know, we, from the police standpoint, have every right in the world to get in there and recover what potential evidence may be in there. >> but you are worried about, even though you have said publicly that there may not be anything on there, is that there was some sort of encrypted communication between the two terrorists that were killed and some other person, perhaps, linked to isis. >> potentially. >> and you want to know that, as a police chief. >> and we have to remember, even

witnesses in this case and a vast majority of all those witnesses said there were two suspects, what they say -- some saw one, but there was a couple that said, "we saw three." and as long as you have some people that truly believe they saw three -- and they believe they saw three -- you're always gonna be stuck with this thing lingering over this case of "is there a third suspect?" now, we have no evidence that there's a third suspect. >> but there were reports early on that you've attributed to the fog of this terror attack. >> there are absolute reports. there are 911 calls that went in to our dispatch center, and some people reported three when they called in, and there are some people that have been interviewed by detectives after the fact that report seeing three. and they truly believe, you know? eyewitnesses can see a lot of different things. five different people can be in a room, go through the same event, and have five different variations of that event. >> or seven different things. >> yeah. it's absolutely normal. but we don't have any evidence that there was a third, but, by god, what if there's something on that phone to indicate that maybe there was? >> san bernardino police chief jarrod burguan. no city is too small for a terrorist attack. when we come back, some final

remarkable new yorker who spent his life trying to make this city better -- former fdny commissioner nick scoppetta. is that coffee?

i want in. you're ready. get ready to experience a cup above. is that coffee? nespresso. what else?

and i raise turkey for shady brook farms . we don't use growth-promoting antibiotics, that's just the way things should be done. that's important to me. my name is glenn, and i'm an independent turkey farmer. (female announcer) shady brook farms . no growth-promoting antibiotics, just honest, simple turkey. >> finally this morning, remembering a man who embodied the spirit of public service -- an extraordinary new yorker who worked for five decades trying to make our lives better. nicholas scoppetta was 83 when he died of cancer on thursday. he served every mayor from lindsay to bloomberg. he investigated corrupt cops, fixed the broken agency that takes care of kids in trouble, and led the fdny after the 9/11 attacks -- a department that was in crisis. >> he was just a class guy,

felt honored to work with him. >> i don't know if there's anyone that's ever served new york city in so many different, such distinct capacities with such great excellence. >> it was my honor to work closely with him on this station's long-standing operation 7 fire safety campaign. nick honored me with a humanitarian award from the fdny, and i cherish it, just as new york city cherished nick. we mourn his death, but we also rejoice about his life. and that'll do it for this edition of "upclose." if you missed any of today's program, you can catch it again on our website, abc7ny. thank you all for watching. i'm bill ritter, and for all of

rest of your day. [ latin music plays ] >> buenos d^as y bienvenidos. good morning, and welcome once again to "tiempo." i'm joe torres. cuny, the city university of new york, is the "big apple's" public university system that serves more than half a million students, mostly from low-income families. well, cuny now faces devastating cuts in state funding. we will tell you what advocates are doing to stop these cuts from taking effect. that's coming up in just a few minutes. pero en este momento, we're talking about cuba once again, more specifically,