NYPD Deputy Chief Providing Security at MSG for Swift-Kelce Wedding Entertains With Lyrical Quotes

Screenshots via X.

Get this cop a friendship bracelet. A New York Police Department officer who is helping provide security at Madison Square Garden for Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s wedding has revealed himself to be a bit of a Swiftie, quoting the singer’s lyrics over his megaphone as he carried out his duties.

Kelce and Swift, both 36, got engaged last August after two years of dating. Their relationship famously began after the Kansas City Chiefs tight end publicly declared on the New Heights podcast he shares with his brother Jason Kelce that he was “a little butthurt” he had been unable to meet Swift when her Eras Tour stopped in Kansas City, despite making her a friendship bracelet with his phone number on it.

That kicked off many appearances by Swift at Kelce’s games (including watching the victorious Chiefs at Super Bowl LVIII), appearances by Kelce at Swift’s globe-spanning Eras tour (including a memorable surprise guest appearance by Kelce during The Tortured Poets Department part of the show), and notable references to Kelce in songs on Swift’s last two albums.

New York City has been abuzz as preparations for the wedding have been ongoing for the past few weeks, with the couple renting out the entire Madison Square Garden and closing off surrounding streets to ensure privacy and security for the estimated 1,000 family and friends — including many other A-listers — who will be in attendance.

Page Six reported on Thursday that Swift and Kelce “already got legally married” elsewhere, most likely in Nashville, noting travel logs for Swift’s private jet making the rounds to cities where close family members live last Sunday before returning to the Country Music Capital for a few days. The report cited multiple sources close to the couple and “security insiders at Manhattan’s’ City Clerk’s Office,” who said no city wedding license application had been submitted, meaning Friday’s soirée will just be to celebrate a marriage that is already official.

Either way, the security arrangements needed to protect the venue and the roughly 100 guests attending Thursday’s rehearsal dinner and the more than 1,000 coming Friday were extensive. TMZ reported that the NYPD would be providing “more than 70 detectives from precincts all across the city,” “over 50 officers” assigned to MSG itself, plus “some NYPD higher-ups” — with an estimated cost of more than $160,000.

It has not been confirmed who exactly is paying for this additional cost but arrangements to hire off-duty police officers for concerts, sports venues, theme parks, and other major events are very common across the country.

Typically, the event organizers or venue enters into two separate types of contracts, one to pay the officers hired (usually at overtime or otherwise higher hourly rates) and one to pay the police agency to “rent” the officers’ uniforms, radios, cars, and other official equipment. The cops benefit from extra pay from a side gig that is often at a fun event and the police agencies benefit from a substantial supplement for their budget.

For example, Walt Disney World’s contract with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office was bringing in about $8 million per year as of 2023, and that is far from the only such arrangement OCSO has locally. The NYPD has a longstanding “Paid Detail Unit” to handle hiring off-duty officers, with pay rates set by rank.

Mediaite reached out to the NYPD Public Information Office to confirm who was covering the cost of the police presence at Madison Square Garden and had not received a reply to this question at the time of publication.

Regardless of who is footing the bill, at least one of the NYPD officers at MSG is treating the gig like one of his “Wildest Dreams” come true, quoting numerous Swift lyrics over his megaphone as he directed pedestrian traffic outside the venue.

The NYPD shared a video on its social media Friday of the Swiftie cop standing on the sidewalk just outside MSG.

Mediaite confirmed with the NYPD that the officer in the video is Timothy Beaudette, deputy chief at the Patrol Bureau Manhattan South. He was previously featured in a similar video at MSG during the New York Knicks’ championship run in this year’s NBA Finals, happily cheering on the hometown team. Detective Barnaby with the NYPD Public Information Office confirmed it was Beaudette in the videos, calling him a “great guy” who enjoyed showing his enthusiasm for his work.

In Friday’s clip, Beaudette kicks off with a lyric from “The Fate of Ophelia” from Swift’s latest album The Life of a Showgirl (“I heard you calling on the megaphone”), followed by “You Need to Calm Down” and “Cruel Summer” from Lover, “Mean” from Speak Now, “I Knew You Were Trouble” from Red, and of course “Welcome to New York” from 1989.

This article has been updated with additional information.

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