NEW YORK – Bill Haire, the newly hired chief of security at The New Yorker hotel, is helping create a safer environment for Republican National Convention (search) guests who will be arriving in August.
The hotel is spending $30,000 to upgrade its security system: Surveillance cameras are changing from tape to digital, the security staff is increasing and due to the location across from Madison Square Garden (search) — the site of the convention — cameras are being placed outside.
"We're watching, not in a Big Brother sort of way, but for your own safety," Haire said.
When the GOP faithful roll into Manhattan, they'll fill up nearly one-third of the city's 70,000 hotel rooms. Other hotels are keeping guests safe by issuing special room keys for that week only and upgrading employee IDs.
But some are concerned that the convention and the normal headaches that accompany it will keep regular tourists away from the Big Apple (search), leaving the remaining 48,000 hotel rooms empty.
Promoters of New York tourism contend that the week of the convention will actually be a very good time for vacationers to come to town. August is typically a slow month, but this is a chance to experience the excitement surrounding the convention with all its attendant safety efforts.
Click on the video box at the top of this story to watch a report by FOX News' Todd Connor.
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