Brooklyn, NY —

New York City will deploy more than twelve thousand police officers to provide security at the Republican National Convention - that's about a third of the city's force. With help from the Federal government, the NYPD is training many of those officers in responding to incidents involving chemical, biological, nuclear and other weapon. Reporter Jessie Graham of member station WNYC accompanied a class of rookie cops through a two day course including classroom lessons - and drills.

GRAHAM: Twenty-three newly-minted officers arrive at a former grade school in Bensonhurst Brooklyn, wearing shorts and jeans. Their t-shirts barely hide their standard issue handguns, in shiny leather holsters around their waists. They're part of the police academy class of nearly seven hundred that graduated on July 7th.

Officer: I'm Police Officer John DiMiola this is your introduction of the Cobra training.

COBRA stands for Chemical, Ordnance, Biological and Radiological Awareness. The weapons of mass destruction training is funded with grants from the Department Of Homeland Security. It begins with a crash course on terrorism.

DIMIOLA: Who are the terrorists going to focus on?
OFFICER: Us.
DIMIOLA: Us, the people in this room. The every day people. The front line of government. For most people government is the New York City Police Department in New York City. They're the aspect of government they deal with every day. The uniformed police officers.

The students are just coming off their first week on the job in precincts throughout the city. Before joining COBRA, their instuctor, DiMiola, worked as a transit cop apprehending pickpockets. He pushes these recruits to meet a new standard.

DIMIOLA: The days of being in a sector car for twenty years without a thought in your head about the wider world are over. As New York City police officers you now need an understanding of national affairs, of international affairs of how international organizations work.

In hours of power-point presentations, officers learn to identify chemical and biological agents. Their manuals list the history of terrorist strikes on the city and potential targets in every borough. They're shown grim videotapes of real explosions - including a Montreal cop who's blown in half. They're told to always look out for a secondary device - planted to kill rescue workers.

CHRISTINA CANCEL: You study it in the textbook version but then, when you're actually out there, you're like, OK, what do I do.

Christina Cancel is thirty-five years old and worked in a brokerage house before signing up for the NYPD. She's assigned to Midtown South - a busy Manhattan precinct with high-profile terrorist targets. She and her fellow classmates have heard again and again since they entered the academy in January that Police Commissioner Ray Kelly plans to deploy nearly ALL of them to the Convention. Cancel says she's nervous about her first big detail - and eager to learn how to use her HAZMAT gear.

CHRISTINA CANCEL: They're just going to throw us the new kids front and center. So I have to be very very conscious of that and absorb everything like a sponge that they give at us, no matter how minute or boring it may be.

DIMIOLA: Approximately one hour ago there were two simultaneous weapons of mass destruction attacks in the City of New York. The first attack was a chemical attack in the New York City subway identified as Sarin. In addition there's been a conventional explosion in an adjacent office building.

In the exercise, police designate a hot zone downwind of the disaster The cops have ten minutes to don their chemical suits, gloves, masks and yellow rubber nuke boots.

AUDITORIUM POST: Charlie lead em out to the train. You're going out on the right, under the canopy.

They step out into a blazing hot July afternoon. In a single car of a New York City subway train, actors posing as victims scream for help.

A man limps towards the officers. An injured woman moans, thrusting a baby at them.

OFFICER: If anybody is able to walk off the train walk off and step towards the platform area.
SCREAMS: Help me, help me.
VINNY: If anyone can walk off the train, step out and walk off the platform area.
VICTIM: I can't walk, please.
VINNY: Alright man, alright.

Casualties are tagged with color-coded labels from green for walking wounded - to black for dead. The most critically injured victim is a mannequin with its entrails exposed. Two officers are trying to remove him but they don't notice a black nylon briefcase nestled under his seat - until it's too late. The alarm indicates that the bomb has exploded.

VINNY: It's a secondary device.
SGT PATEL: Continue your triage, You are in a scenario, I have not cut the scenario.
OFFICER 2: We need help get over here!

When they've dragged the last victim out, they're ready for their evaluation from Sgt. Surinda Patel.

SGT. SURINDA PATEL: How you practice is how you will play out there. The device was here. You all blew up. But I rather you blew up today. Today you blew up and died. You're happy and you're very happy and you should be very happy that you're walking home to your families tonight.

THOMAS ROWE: Did anyone notice the wires coming out of the bomb?

Retired NYPD officer Thomas Rowe is now a trainer for the Department of Homeland Security.

STUDENT: I wasn't over there.
THOMAS ROWE: Did anybody out of the group do a full walk-through? A full walk through from one end of the car to the next. We just came in piecemeal didn't we? You need to get an overview. We had a woman here with a baby sitting here screaming. That pulls at our heart strings. We end up going to them first. But I want to leave you with one thought. The louder they can scream, the less sick they are.

The officers redeem themselves in other scenarios. They decontaminate rescue workers who've been exposed to chemical weapons. They're assigned to keep bystanders from entering the zone where a chemical attack took place.

MAN: You ain't telling me nothing. Nobody's telling me nothing what happened guys? My wife's on that train.
OFFICER: I know ,she's being decontaminated. The Red Cross and Fire Department. They can help you.
MAN: Thank you, please.
TRAINER: Alright, CUT!

Finally, they save a fellow officer from a bombed building, wading easily through smoke generated by a fog machine.

SGT. PATEL: Don't be too upset that you blew up today. Learn from it. That's what we want from all of you. If you can't get it in this simple environment you may not make it out there. The key is to make it out there. Empower yourselves. Get on that Internet, start reading the newspaper and start looking at that news. The more you learn about the RNC the better for you.

OK, we're done. Team leader, you're going up to decon.

They head back into the auditorium - drenched in sweat and anxious to remove their masks and chemical suits. Christina Cancel says she's thinking beyond the threat of terrorism - to what she knows will a factor at the convention. Though the government has issued warnings about attacks aimed around the election, handling the hundreds of thousands of protesters is something she'll definitely be facing in just a few weeks.

CANCEL: As each day passes it becomes more and more of a reality. The protesters, I never had to deal with protesters. I was the person that was at home, watching it on TV.
Since March, seven thousand New York City police officers have gone through this two-day class. The plan is to put ten thousand through the program before the Convention begins on August twenty ninth.

OFFICER: Please be safe in your careers. I wish you Godspeed and eighteen wonderful years that I've had on this job.

OFFICER: We will now start your COBRA graduation.