NYPD shakes the crowds for Macy’s Thanksgiving parade

The NYPD is doing its best to keep the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade from turning into a super spreader event – cops are posting around the parade route to make sure large crowds don’t form.

The Turkey Day tradition is now a shortened 3-day parade, and with pre-registration Tuesday and Wednesday, police are busy standing guard for trouble and rounding up people.

As you can see, there are a ton of barricades set up in the side streets blocked off around Macy’s flagship store, where most of the pre-registrations take place … and the cops hold the perimeter.

Police are making their presence known, but a senior NYPD official told TMZ that police details for the parade have been slashed by 80% from last year, which is a huge reduction. The downsizing, we are told, is due to the fact that the parade is much smaller.

We’re told the NYPD doesn’t expect big crowds or trouble, believing most people will be smart and be reluctant to come together to watch the pre-recordings … but if people come and watch, the cops will inform them of the dangers of the crowd in a pandemic and move them forward.

So far, things seem to be going well as Macy’s tackles a new parade, which is essentially just the last section of the usual 2.5 mile route.

Macy’s honchos tell us there were no issues checking in floats, balloons, Santa Claus and performers on the side streets around the flagship department store … in part thanks to the perimeters secure. The organizers did not telegraph where they were filming, which also helped prevent crowds from forming.

Macy’s says Thanksgiving Day will see a live show outside the flagship store anchored by Savannah Guthrie, Al roker and Hoda Kotb during a shortened parade … and we are told that there will be a greater police presence.