REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, NEW YORK -- A six-ton crystal ball is ready to be lowered above New York City, colorful paper has been ground into confetti that will rain on Times Square and about 6,000 police officers will guard revelers on New Year's Eve at one of the city's highest-profile events.

"We are ready," Mayor Bill de Blasio told a news conference on Tuesday. "We are the best prepared city in the country, the best prepared city to prevent terrorism and to deal with any event that could occur."

An estimated one million people are expected in the vicinity of One Times Square on Thursday for the New Year's Eve dropping of the ball, a tradition begun in 1907 and broken only during wartime blackouts.

In the aftermath of Islamist-inspired attacks in San Bernardino, California, and Paris, the city will draw on its new Critical Response Command counterterrorism unit, which includes more heavily armed officers, to patrol Times Square. The unit, trained to detect and respond to attack plots, was commissioned days before the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.