NYPD CONFIDENTIAL

Along with a contingent of detectives and undercover operatives, the NYPD's counterterror czar, Rebecca Weiner, defends New York City and the nation against enemies foreign and domestic. ADAM CIRALSKY reports from inside the country's most elite local law enforcement agency

- ADAM CIRALSKY

REBECCA'S BUREAU Previous spread: the NYPD's deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism, Rebecca Weiner, with officers from her 1,600-member squad, in Brooklyn Bridge Park.

ON A CLOUDLESS September afternoon, I stopped by 1 Police Plaza in Lower Manhattan to see Rebecca Ulam Weiner, an enigmatic figure who occupies one of the most consequential and improbable perches in America's national security hierarchy. As the NYPD's deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism, her chief mission is to "counter terrorism and mitigate targeted violence, fight crime, and protect people, places, and events in New York City." And that's not the half of it.

As part of her sprawling portfolio, the 47-year-old mother of two relies on a mind-boggling suite of assets that Americans might otherwise assume are controlled by the CIA, FBI, DHS, Secret Service, or other agencies. Weiner has access to a legion of intelligence analysts, counterassault and dignitary-protection teams, a flotilla of boats, radiation-sniffing and surveillance aircraft, the nation's biggest bomb squad, a counter-drone unit, a remote contingent of NYPD detectives stationed in 13 cities overseas, and a network of multilingual undercover operatives who subvert malicious actors across the US and around the world.