An identification placard in a van that caused a security scare in Times Square a day before the city's massive New Year's celebration wasn't supposed to be used as a parking permit, according to a fraternal group for police officers and other law enforcement buffs that issued the card.

Police department officials said traffic agents and officers apparently overlooked a van parked illegally on Broadway for at least two days because of the windshield placard from a nonprofit group called the Detectives Crime Clinic of New Jersey and New York. The group said Friday it doesn't know how the card ended up in the van.

A private security guard finally grew suspicious Wednesday because the van had no license plates and blacked-out windows. Police blocked off part of the square for hours and two high-rise buildings, home to Nasdaq and publishing company Conde Nast, were partially evacuated.

A bomb squad examined the vehicle a day before the city's New Year's Eve celebration, which draws hundreds of thousands of revelers from around the world to the heart of Times Square to see the ball drop at midnight.

The incident raised a question: Why would officers patrolling security-sensitive Times Square give a free pass to a van simply because it had an ID placard from a little-known nonprofit group?

[more at: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/01/02/us/AP-US-Times-Square-Suspicious-Van.html]