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Tisha Thompson, ESPN
The NFL and federal law enforcement are increasing security at Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans in response to the New Year’s Eve terrorist attack on Bourbon Street that killed 14 people, officials told ESPN.
Officials acknowledged that the New Orleans attack, in which a man drove a truck through crowds, prompted authorities to allocate more personnel and resources to one of the world’s most popular sporting events. protected in the country.
“We have significantly increased our security posture so that people can come here and see a heavy law enforcement presence,” said Eric DeLaune, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in New Orleans, who leads federal coordination of Super Bowl LIX. .
“I would like to say it doesn’t change much in our security planning, but it does change things,” NFL security chief Cathy Lanier told ESPN. “Are we doing things differently? Of course.”
More than 125,000 people are expected in New Orleans for the Super Bowl on February 9, just five weeks after the attack that led to the postponement of the Sugar Bowl.
DeLaune, who like Lanier is in New Orleans this week preparing for the event, said the increased security presence will soon be evident. There will be SWAT team members, armored vehicles, special agents on rooftops, government surveillance drones and additional security cameras around the city, according to DeLaune. The U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Customs and Border Protection will patrol the Mississippi River, and the Transportation Safety Administration will deploy more than 90 bomb-sniffing dogs.
“My goal was that you couldn’t walk a block in downtown New Orleans without encountering at least one law enforcement official,” DeLaune said. “I’m not trying to scare people. I want people to see that we’re ready.”
Leon Panetta, former defense secretary and CIA director during the Obama administration, said the New Orleans attack, which federal authorities say was carried out by an inspired U.S. Army veteran by ISIS, was a “wake-up call” indicating that “terrorism remains a real threat.” threat to our country. »
DeLaune said that in response to this lone wolf attack, which he said poses a difficult threat to address, law enforcement has recruited intelligence analysts to monitor potential threats.
Unlike the Sugar Bowl and other sporting events, the Super Bowl is a Tier 1 federal event, supported by federal agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security, FBI, Bureau of Alcohol, tobacco, firearms and explosives, as well as other agencies responsible for combating alcoholism, tobacco, firearms and explosives. terrorist threats.
DeLaune declined to provide details on how many additional people will be on the ground the week of the Super Bowl, but said “hundreds” of federal agents will be traveling throughout the city to support law enforcement local and state by the end of the game.
“You’ll see a lot of people in uniform, but there will also be a lot of people in plain clothes in the crowd,” DeLaune said. “We want people to know.”
After the attack, local police officials said the city replaced the street markers before the Super Bowl. The New Orleans City Council has since launched an investigation into the city’s street barrier system, which failed to stop the attacker from driving his truck down the crowded street. Lanier told ESPN that the NFL has not specifically asked New Orleans to repair the terminals, but noted that replacing the equipment “is part of what a host city normally does.”
“My understanding is that these stations have not been working for some time and there were plans to replace them,” she said.
DeLaune said state and local law enforcement have since increased barricade protection on Bourbon Street and throughout the French Quarter in response to the attack.
“The barriers may not have worked. There may have been other issues that played into the impact of this January 1 event,” he said. “But I can tell you the answer is genuine. The answer is they want the city to be safer, they want Bourbon Street to be safer and they don’t want to see an attack like this reproduce.
“I can understand that someone might have said that more could have been done, but I can tell you now that what is being done is not because of the Super Bowl. It is not because of Mardi Gras ” he said. “It’s because they genuinely care about the safety and security of the citizens they serve and are trying to make things better.”
The NFL began its security planning for the Super Bowl 18 months ago and began building the security perimeter five days after the attack, according to Lanier. She flew to New Orleans hours after the attack to receive briefings and returned this week to meet with law enforcement and walk the perimeter of each location, including the security barricades around Caesars Superdome and the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, site of the four-day NFL fan experience.
A former Washington, D.C., police chief, Lanier compared planning for the Super Bowl to preparations for the presidential inauguration on Jan. 20. “It’s the difference between the Fourth of July celebrations in Washington, D.C. and the inauguration. It’s a completely different and different planning effort. level of resource commitment.
The Super Bowl host stadium typically has a security perimeter three times larger than a regular-season game, limiting access to a small number of checkpoints, according to Lanier.
“In many ways, the Super Bowl itself will have so much protection that it could become the safest place in the world,” said Chuck Wexler, a security expert and executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum. .
The challenge, according to Wexler and other security experts, is securing every other location fans can visit in the eight days leading up to the game. At last year’s Super Bowl in Las Vegas, events were confined to a small area of hotels with pre-existing cameras and a built-in security system.
“It’s not like that in a city like New Orleans, where the Super Bowl is at the Superdome, two miles away is the convention center where the NFL fan experience takes place, and Another mile away is the NFL Honors at the Saenger Theater,” said DeLaune, a Louisiana native. “And all these people are wandering between these three places, to the Warehouse District parties, Frenchman’s Street, to the parties on Bourbon Street all over the French Quarter.”
Wexler said that to prepare, planners study previous attacks like the Boston Marathon bombing as well as more mundane, but equally concerning, security threats like the shooting that erupted during the Super Last year’s bowl in Kansas City.
“This was not a terrorist attack, but individuals who had firearms,” Wexler said. “So we’re talking about what happened in New Orleans, but we should also think about what happened in Kansas City and what happened in Boston, because each of those events doesn’t what to add to the necessary safety precautions.”
DeLaune said law enforcement will launch a public campaign this week to encourage people to speak out, whether they see something suspicious in person or online. He urged people everywhere, not just in Louisiana, to report the information.
“Often people are intimidated by the reporting process because they fear they will look stupid if it turns out to be nothing,” DeLaune said. “We’re not concerned about that. We want you to know if you see anything that concerns you, if there’s something strange or different, speak up. Let us know.”
