Secret Service’s next challenge: Keeping scores of world leaders safe at the UN General Assembly

UNITED NATIONS — Beneath the United Nations headquarters, a state-of-the-art security post called the “Brain Center” is buzzing with activity on the eve of next week’s UN General Assembly summit. The annual diplomatic pilgrimage brings more than 140 world leaders to New York City, including the leaders of Israel, the Palestinians and Ukraine.

Ensuring their safety is the next major challenge for the US Secret Service.

The agency, under a cloud after a July attempted murder former President Donald Trump, is confident in his multi-layered, multi-agency plan to protect the UN General Assembly, which is considered a Super Bowl-level national special security event.

The plan — developed with the New York City Police Department and the UN Security and Safety Service, among other agencies — includes not only motorcades and protective details, but also NYPD helicopters and patrol boats, a dozen UN security teams searching for explosives, road closures and traffic diversions. The Secret Service is bringing in agents from posts around the world. The Coast Guard is restricting access to the East River near the UN, and the Federal Aviation Administration is closing airspace.

With so many presidents, prime ministers, monarchs and other dignitaries in one city and under one roof at the same time, the UN General Assembly is actually bigger than the Super Bowl. It is the most complex event the Secret Service is involved with each year.

This year, it comes during a particularly busy period marked by the Republican and Democratic conventions and the final weeks of the presidential campaign. On Monday, after the Secret Service foiled another apparent assassination attempt on Trump in Florida, Acting Director Ronald L. Rowe Jr. said employees were “redlining” like an engine pushed to its limits. But, he said, “they are rising to this moment” and rising to the challenges.

“The operational tempo is incredibly high,” said Patrick Freaney, the special agent in charge of the Secret Service’s New York field office.

The Associated Press got a rare glimpse inside the security preparations for the U.N. General Assembly, known as UNGA, including the “Brain Center” and a joint operations center that allows the Secret Service, NYPD and other agencies to communicate directly to track threats and logistical problems. They also work with the foreign security services protecting each of the dignitaries.

Freaney said the National Special Security Event designation — for special events of national significance — paves the way for interagency planning, communication and cooperation. The Secret Service is in charge, but the NYPD’s robust counterterrorism and other operations and the 300-person U.N. Security and Safety Service play critical roles.

“We have over 140 heads of state and government that we move around the city,” Freaney said during a tour of the joint operations center, which houses 10 local and federal agencies, including the FBI and the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the departments of State and Defense.

“One of the most important things is getting them all here and then getting them out safely,” Freaney said. “Think about that logistically: getting 140 motorcades into one area at a time. That plays a major role in getting those details in safely.”

The Secret Service, NYPD and State Department will also operate their own command centers — in Brooklyn, at One Police Plaza in Manhattan and in a nearby hotel ballroom. The NYPD, the nation’s largest police force, has equipped its Joint Operations Center to give officers real-time feeds from security cameras, drones and helicopters, along with other crucial intelligence.

The UN Security and Safety Administration, which is responsible for security on the UN headquarters campus, has its command post in the “Brain Center.”

In a basement hallway of the main center of U.N. operations, wall-to-wall monitors show live feeds from dozens of the 1,400 security cameras on the 18-acre (7.2-hectare) headquarters campus. All are recorded and can be viewed instantly. Automated voices warn of potential breaches and emergencies. Computers generate real-time data and photos for each of the more than 22,000 people who pass through security checkpoints each day. Fire alarms are connected directly to the city’s central dispatch system for immediate response.

The command center is staffed 24 hours a day by U.N. security officials who work 12-hour shifts while world leaders are in town. The goal, said Inspector Malinda McCormack, is to receive, analyze and quickly disseminate information.

Security plans for the UN General Assembly began to take shape a few months ago. The Secret Service and its partners are using past meetings — this is the 79th — as a blueprint, while adjusting for changing world events like the wars in Gaza and Ukraine.

“There is incredible trust,” said Michael Browne, head of the UN security service. “There is an incredible sense of collegiality and cooperation, which I think is a key ingredient for success in a very complex and challenging operation like UNGA.”

On Friday, authorities said there were no specific or credible threats to the event.

But Rebecca Weiner, the NYPD’s deputy commissioner for intelligence and counterterrorism, acknowledged that “the chaotic, diverse and unpredictable nature of the threat environment” requires law enforcement to be agile and anticipate all the ways someone could cause harm.

“These are very different times,” Weiner said.

World leaders are meeting at the UN General Assembly for the first time since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, leading to an Israeli offensive in Gaza that has cost tens of thousands of lives. NYPD Patrol Chief John Chell said Friday that the department has counted more than 4,000 protests over the war, with more expected next week.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas are both expected to attend the UN General Assembly. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is also expected to return. Russian President Vladimir Putin will not be there, but will send Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

While the fighting is happening across the ocean, authorities are thinking about what’s happening abroad in these homelands and what we can expect here, Weiner said.

“The whole purpose of this meeting is to bring countries together,” she added. “The whole purpose of our security posture is to make sure that we do the same.”