NEW ORLEANS — New Orleans officials projected confidence in their security plans as the city prepares to host the Super Bowl and Mardi Gras in the aftermath of a terror attack that killed 14 people on New Year’s Day and questions linger over security lapses.
“We know that we’re ready but guess what? We’re wanting to double down on those efforts just to make sure,” Mayor LaToya Cantrell said a Friday press conference.
City officials say they have been working for more than two years to prepare for the Super Bowl and will have around 400 city police officers present along with other local, state and federal authorities.
The 11th Super Bowl hosted by New Orleans on Feb. 9 is expected to draw an estimated 100,000 visitors to the city, according to Collin Arnold, director of the New Orleans Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. Mardi Gras on March 4. also brings thousands onto the streets.
At Cantrell’s request, Mardi Gras was recently upgraded to Homeland Security’s highest security event rating, allowing for more federal resources. The New Orleans Police Department hired former New York Police Commissioner William J. Bratton as a consultant this week and are in the process of bolstering security protocol.
Multiple investigations are now reviewing how an Islamic State-group inspired attacker was able to drive his F-150 truck onto one the city’s famed Bourbon Street and plow into New Year’s reveler’s. A lawsuit alleges the city and multiple contractors failed to instigate security measures that could have prevented or mitigated the attack.
Cantrell said the city is in the process of assessing its security barriers and engaging in mechanical upgrades, including bringing in more steel Archer barriers to block vehicles from traveling down sidewalks. Bollards — protective steel columns — being installed on Bourbon Street for the Super Bowl are reportedly not strong enough to prevent a similar vehicle attack from occurring.
“We’re going to make sure the best is what we give towards the city of New Orleans, looking at all equipment,” Cantrell said.
NOPD Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick declined to provide specifics on the city’s Super Bowl safety plan which she said the NFL’s security team was “confident in.”
Chief Administrative Officer Gilbert Montaño indicated the city is pulling out all the stops: “Let’s prepare and use whatever means financially and we’ll worry about that after the fact.”
Council President J.P. Morrell sought to reassure anxious visitors ahead of the Super Bowl and Mardis Gras that New Orleans will continue to offer “the greatest hospitality in America.”
“We are still that place, you will still be welcomed, you will still enjoy everything New Orleans has to offer.”
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Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Brook on the social platform X: @jack_brook96.