Picture of the Day - Police Surge

CROWN HEIGHTS, Brooklyn [CHI] — On Eastern Pkwy today, Wednesday, Police put on a show for residents, called a 'Surge Drill'. The NYPD are constantly doing these drills, they are mostly in Manhattan, but sometimes they come to Crown Heights and park on Eastern Pkwy next to 770.

Since its debut, about four years ago it has become one of New York City's hottest acts for those lucky enough to catch a free, unannounced performance. Call it “The Police Drive Fast! And Park!”

It goes something like this: On a typical block in, say, Midtown Manhattan, as many as 80 police cars quickly stream in out of nowhere, in neat rows, their lights and sirens going. The drills seem to take place on blocks with restricted parking, and each car executes a fast back-in parking job against the curb.

Sometimes, depending on the block, they park perpendicular to the curb; sometimes at a slant. The officers - scores of them - get out of the cars. They do not rush into a building. They do not draw their guns. They pretty much just stand around for half an hour or so. Then, officers pile back into their cars and, again in formation, the cars pull away from the curb and drive off.

“It's part of a counterterrorism overlay that is tweaked from time to time, based on conditions and intelligence,” said a police spokesman, Paul J. Browne. Suffice it to say that police vehicles are practicing moving quickly through the city en masse.

It is unclear whether the drills are part of the department's much-publicized counterterrorism operations, including Hercules, Samson and Atlas.

The New York Times contributed to this report.