(CNN) – It is one of America’s largest security operations: protecting thousands of world leaders and their entourages at the annual high-level meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
As diplomats gathered for speeches and informal talks this week, CNN and a select group of media gained access to two high-level security rooms at the UN facility, maneuvering through a long series of nondescript hallways in the heart of the modernist headquarters of the organization.
The most impressive thing is to see a huge wall of monitors in both. It was clear that there are cameras everywhere, some well hidden, spread throughout the UN compound pointing at the doors, the garage, the UN hallways and the entrances. There are 1,400 cameras in total, according to UN officials.
High shots from the cameras monitoring nearby corners outside the UN are always on. UN security officials say it is impossible to monitor all 1,400 cameras at the same time, but there are personnel monitoring the scene.
If a visitor – or a more nefarious character – has trouble using their badge to enter the complex, an alarm will sound in the security control rooms, with an automated voice warning that the person has been “Rejected! Rejected! Rejected!”
Remind me to fix my tie when I walk around the UN grounds.
It is a team effort between the UN, the New York Police Department, the Secret Service and diplomatic security. They have to watch a lot of people: this year there were more than 22,000 delegates among those attending the UNGA.
Since this is an annual event, security maintains a file. UN security says they learn a little every year.
“Knock on wood; We have never had a security incident here related to heads of state. We have done everything we can,” said US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield on the eve of this year’s global meeting.
The New York Police and diplomatic security are in charge of rushing the long and short delegations from Manhattan hotels to the UN and vice versa. And yes, that means traffic jams. This year, more than ever, world leaders have spread out across the city, from knocking on the door of the New York Stock Exchange to meeting their constituents living in the United States.
Although the United Nations is increasingly the target of criticism and the forum in which “venomous” barbs are exchanged between ambassadors, managing unwanted attention and security threats has always been part of its job. staff.
Last year on New Year’s Day, a woman who was having a ‘psychiatric episode’ drove her vehicle up to the UN’s main drive-through entrance and refused to leave. In 2002, a postal worker jumped the perimeter fence, threw leaflets into the air and shot at the imposing Secretariat building, hitting several floors. (The fence has now been built higher).
UN security officials say their priority is providing a safe environment. For now, everything is going well.
