NEW ORLEANS– New Orleans officials projected confidence in their safety plans as the city prepares to host the Super Bowl and Mardi Gras in the wake of a terrorist attack that killed 14 people on New Year’s Day and questions linger safety is lost.
“We know we’re ready, but guess what? To be sure, we want to redouble these efforts,” Mayor LaToya Cantrell said at a news conference Friday.
City officials say they have been working for more than two years to prepare for the Super Bowl and that about 400 city police officers will be on site, along with other local, state and federal authorities.
The 11th Super Bowl, hosted in New Orleans on Feb. 9, is expected to draw an estimated 100,000 visitors to the city, said Collin Arnold, director of the New Orleans Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. Mardi Gras on March 4 also brings thousands of people onto the streets.
At Cantrell’s request, Mardi Gras was recently upgraded to Homeland Security’s highest security event rating, making more federal resources available. The New Orleans Police Department has hired a former New York police commissioner William J. Bratton this week as a consultant and are working on strengthening the security protocol.
An investigation is now underway into how an Islamic State group-inspired attacker was able to drive his F-150 truck onto the city’s famous Bourbon Street and crash into the New Year’s banquet hall. A lawsuit alleges the city and several contractors failed to take safety measures that could have prevented or mitigated the attack.
Cantrell said the city is in the process of assessing safety barriers and making mechanical upgrades, including installing more steel Archer barriers to prevent vehicles from driving on sidewalks. Bollards – protective steel columns – being installed on Bourbon Street for the Super Bowl reportedly not strong enough to prevent a similar vehicle attack from occurring.
“We’re going to make sure we give the best to the city of New Orleans, looking at all the equipment,” Cantrell said.
NOPD Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick declined to provide details about the city’s Super Bowl security plan, which she said the NFL’s security team had “confidence in.”
Chief Administrative Officer Gilbert Montaño indicated that the city is pulling out all the stops: “Let’s prepare and use all the financial resources we can, and we’ll worry about that afterward.”
Council President JP Morrell sought to reassure concerned 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 are still welcomed, you 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 social platform X: @jack_brook96.