Ex-NYPD Chief Says ‘Nothing Comparable’ to Taylor Swift’s Fame, References Michael Jackson and Elvis

As Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s reported wedding at New York City’s Madison Square Garden approaches, former New York Police Department Chief Kenneth Corey reflected on the singer’s fame as he discussed protocols taken by law enforcement for the event.

Ahead of the event that is expected to take place on Friday, July 3, Corey explained that the NYPD has had to approach security in an extreme way.

“There is nothing comparable to her level of stardom and her fan base — you’re on the level of Elvis, Michael Jackson or the Beatles in their heyday,” Corey told The New York Times about Swift, 36. “I was at the N.Y.P.D. for almost 35 years, and there was no wedding near this scale.”

Corey added that hundreds of police officers would likely be necessary to keep fans safe in the area, while Swift has also hired private security to make sure she and her guests are safe on the big day.

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Police have taken several protocols ahead of the event, including setting up concrete barriers that were used during the recent NBA Finals to keep fans safe from any terrorist threats such as ramming vehicles.

Corey added that the wedding is taking place at a time with an already elevated security risk due to the Fourth of July holiday.

Security protocols regarding the wedding were also discussed during a news conference about the city’s Fourth of July preparations, in which police commissioner Jessica Tisch acknowledged that there was “an event that we are tracking at Madison Square Garden on Friday night.”

However, she did not directly state that she was referring to Swift and Kelce’s wedding.

“The N.Y.P.D. will of course have a detail in place, but I’m not going to go into more specifics at this time,” she said, per The New York Times.

Swift and Kelce, 36, got engaged in August 2025 after two years of dating.

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Many details of their wedding have not been confirmed, but Swift shared insight into her wedding planning process while promoting her October 2025 album, The Life of a Showgirl.

“You would think that I had been the type of person who would have obsessed over the idea of a wedding my whole life, but I actually never thought about what I would ever do or what I would want until I met the person,” she said while appearing on Heart Radio in the U.K. in October 2025.

She added at the time that she hadn’t fully comprehended her new “married life era,” but she gushed she was “really excited” about her future with Kelce.