The NYPD issued a memo over the weekend advising its rank-and-file officers to be on the lookout for potential attacks after a video was posted online by the terrorist group Islamic State calling on supporters to kill law enforcement in the wake of deadly attacks at a newspaper office and a grocery store in France last week.
The memo, obtained by NBC 4 New York, was read to all officers over the weekend. It warned cops to stay on alert for threats, and told groups of officers stationed to fixed posts with a patrol car to split up, with one officer sitting in the vehicle and another standing outside to look for threats.
"A least one officer must stand outside the vehicle at all times," the memo said. "Pay attention to your surroundings, officers must pay close attention to approaching vehicles and anyone getting out of a vehicle. Pay close attention to people as they approach and look for their hands as they approach you."
The memo comes days after a string of deadly attacks in Paris. In the first, on Wednesday at the offices of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, nine journalists and two police officers were killed by a pair of gunman who shouted "Allahu akbar" before opening fire with automatic weapons.
In a second set of attacks, a gunman killed a police officer and then took hostages at a Kosher supermarket, killing four shoppers before being shot by police.
After the attacks, Islamic State posted a video online showing a man claiming to be the gunman who killed hostages at the supermarket pledging his allegiance to the terrorist group. Islamic State also reposted a second video that called on supporters to kill police officers, intelligence officials, soldiers and civilians.
Speaking on CBS' "Face The Nation" Sunday morning, NYPD Deputy Commissioner John Miller said the department didn't know about any specific threats when it issued the memo.
Local
"This is not an intelligence-based threat but rather another propaganda-type posting calling for actions," Millers said. "Based on recent world events, we did put out a message to the troops to be vigilant."
The memo comes amid months of stepped-up patrols and security alerts by the force, sparked after Islamic State initially posted the video calling for lone-wolf attacks in September. On Wednesday, the NYPD also placed counterterrorism patrols at city landmarks, the French Consulate and at media company offices in response to the attacks at Charlie Hebdo.
The memo also comes after several recent attacks on officers. In October, a man attacked a group of officers in Queens with a hatchet.
The attacker, Zale Thompson, was killed by police, and the officers who were struck with the hatchet survived. Police described the attack as an act of terror, and said that Thompson had watched Islamic State propaganda and beheading videos before the attack.
In December, officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu were both shot and killed by Ismaaiyl Brinsley, who later ran into a subway station and took his life. The two officers were sitting in a patrol car in Bedford-Stuyvesant when Brinsley, who posted on Instagram that he was "putting wings on pigs" and mentioned the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown, approached and fatally shot them.
--Jonathan Dienst contributed to this report.
