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Hundreds of New York’s Finest are set to be out in full force for Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s two-day wedding celebration at Madison Square Garden — which a former NYPD bigwig predicted will be as huge as a “presidential visit” for the city.
Roughly 130 cops will be stationed outside the World’s Most Famous Arena each day of the “Cruel Summer” singer’s nuptials, according to law-enforcement sources and an internal NYPD memo obtained by The Post.
Swift, 36, is expected to have a rehearsal dinner Thursday evening for about 100 guests at the Infosys Theater at Madison Square Garden, according to the memo.
She’s then said to be hosting a mega-bash for about 1,000 of her nearest and dearest on Friday, with guests expected to arrive in the early afternoon and the festivities expected to go on until around 2 a.m., sources have said.
“If I can compare it to any type of event, I would compare it to a presidential event. You have to close down roads and have arteries to get people around,” said Rodney Harrison, the NYPD’s former chief of department, noting that police could deploy drones overhead and set up barriers around the Garden for the high-profile wedding.
“You’ll have to have a pen so people can see their favorite star or athlete. Let’s not forget Travis Kelce has fans.”
He stressed protecting the event was “something not abnormal for the NYPD.”
Road closures around the arena are also expected with VIP entrances slated for West 31st Street and West 33rd Street, according to the internal memo.
The deployment of cops comes as the NYPD has been stretched thin thanks to the FIFA World Cup and the Knicks’ championship run. Cops will also be handling major events this weekend with the celebrations tied to America’s 250th anniversary.
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The pop star is expected to be on the hook for OT costs, while other cops will be working their usual shifts, sources said.
The department was expected to spend $92 million on police overtime and extra equipment costs this summer for the various major events taking place, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch previously told the City Council at a meeting. It’s not clear if that estimate includes the deployment for Swift’s wedding, which will involve some cops on OT shifts, according to sources.
But Detectives’ Endowment Association president Scott Munro argued the wedding festivities would further exhaust NYPD personnel, including about 5,000 detectives who have each worked 85 hours of overtime in the past month.
“Our people are out there working in this heat day and night. During the Knicks finals, they got choked, bit, spit at,” he told The Post. “Do you really think they needed to do this wedding right now in New York?”
“I don’t think it’s a good time to do it right now. I think our people are tired. I’d say with everything going on for Fourth of July, do you really think that needed to be done here on Friday night?” Munro added, stressing Swift should thank law enforcement.
Tisch referenced the star-studded event, but did not mention Swift by name, at a press conference about Fourth of July security Wednesday.
“I would be remiss not to mention an event at Madison Square Garden on Friday night,” she said. “The NYPD will of course have a detail in place but I am not going to go into more specifics on that at this time.”
Mayor Zohran Mamdani chuckled when a reporter asked if “the billionaire [should] be paying for the price of cops protecting the billionaire’s event?” during the same briefing, but neither he nor Tisch answered questions about the cost of staffing the wedding for taxpayers. The NYPD also didn’t return a request for comment.
The democratic socialist mayor also played coy when asked if the city was prepared for the mass of fans that might converge on the venue.
“You know, we will be prepared for crowds, whether they’re going to be outside of Madison Square Garden, or they’re going to be gathering outside any of the viewing sites for the Fourth of July fireworks,” Hizzoner said on 1010 WINS on Wednesday.
“When it comes to the event at MSG, what I can say is that there’s been an application filed for a large event. We are fully prepared. There isn’t anything to share beyond that.”
The MTA Police Department will also be involved in the festivities, according to sources.
But while the event will take place right next to Penn Station, the MTA stressed Swift and Kelce’s long-awaited marriage won’t disrupt straphangers’ travels.
“We’re going to run regular service. And we’re going to run a lot of service because that’s what we do every day and especially on holiday weekends,” MTA chief Janno Lieber said at an unrelated press conference Wednesday.
Then he doled out some tongue-in-cheek advice to would-be guests of the Swift extravaganza.
“We hope and expect that some of the celebrities, if there are celebrities coming to this alleged event, will take advantage of our service rather than spending a lot of time stuck in traffic somewhere in Midtown,” he said.
Source: New York Post
