From CBS News:
NEW YORK (CBS NEWS) -- Sand-filled sanitation trucks and police sharpshooters will mix with glittering floats and giant balloons at a Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade that comes in a year of terrible mass shootings and not even a month after a deadly truck attack in lower Manhattan.
New York City's mayor and police brass have repeatedly stressed that layers of security, along with hundreds of officers, will be in place for one of the nation's biggest outdoor holiday gatherings, and that visitors hould not be deterred.
"We had a couple of tough months as a nation," Police Commissioner James O'Neill said. "We won't ever accept such acts of hate and cowardice as inevitable in our society."
A posting last year in an English-language magazine of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which took credit for the Oct. 31 truck attack that killed eight people, mentioned the Thanksgiving parade as "an excellent target."
The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI tell CBS News there are no specific threats or warnings surrounding the holiday. Officials in New York echoed that sentiment Wednesday.
"I want to assure the people that we swore to protect that anytime something happens anywhere in the world, the NYPD works with our law enforcement partners and studies it and we learn from it and it informs our decision making going forward," O'Neill said.
NYPD Chief of Patrol Terence Monahan, who is in charge of parade security, told CBS News' DeMarco Morgan that sanitation trucks will be "up and down" the parade route.
"Sand trucks, blocker vehicles -- the entire route is secure from any vehicles entering it," Monahan said.
He also said the NYPD is working with hotels and training staff on what to look for in wake of the deadly attack in Las Vegas.
"We have people at high posts," Monahan said. "We have people -- observation teams -- there will be sniper teams in and around. We will have undercover assets in a lot of different buildings so there's going to be a lot you can see out there, and a lot you won't see out there that day covering every aspect."
NYPD, along with federal and state agencies, will also monitor activity using state-of-the-art equipment that includes dozens of cameras set up through the city, CBS News' Morgan reports.
"There's probably not a spot in New York City that there isn't some sort of camera that can be focused on you," Monahan said.
In addition, officers with assault weapons and portable radiation detectors will walk among the crowds, and sharpshooters on rooftops will scan building windows and balconies for anything unusual.
New York officials are also asking the tens of thousands of spectators to be alert for anything suspicious.
"There will be a cop on every block," said Monahan. "Go to that cop and say something."
Click for more on the story courtesy of CBS News.