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After a brief post- Super Bowl breather, an intense security presence will return to the streets and skies of New Orleans, as helicopters, drones, bomb-sniffing dogs, SWAT team members and armored vehicles deploy Mardi Gras parades.
"All of the same resources that were brought out for Super Bowl, they'll see in an elongated fashion along Mardi Gras parade routes," said Eric DeLaune, the special agent in charge of U.S. Homeland Security Investigations in New Orleans. The appointment of DeLaune, who is leading the coordination effort, followed Mardi Gras' recent SEAR 1 designation, an upgrade from past years when the event hovered between SEAR 2 and SEAR 3 ratings.
Just as the Taylor Swift Eras Tour in October provided a trial run for Super Bowl security, the Super Bowl itself served as a "pressure test" for the larger, longer Carnival season, DeLaune said.
The heightened French Quarter security zone implemented during the Super Bowl will be enforced again, with National Guard troops stationed in the area, NOPD Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said Thursday.
A new vehicle mitigation system will be introduced on the lakeside of St. Charles Avenue. Officers will position their vehicles in a "serpentine course" around barricades to slow traffic, though vehicles will still be able to pass through.
"It's going to be a serpentine course. We're going to weave it like a snake," Kirkpatrick said. "That will slow anybody down who thinks they're going to use a vehicle as a weapon."
Kirkpatrick acknowledged an impact on residents who live on St. Charles but said they'd still be able to navigate the famed oak-lined avenue.
Otherwise, Kirkpatrick said spectators will see "much of the same package ... of safety resources and assets that you saw at the Super Bowl," including Louisiana National Guard soldiers at the ready. She said 600 of the city's 900 sworn officers are assigned to Mardi Gras and will work 12-hour shifts, including 100 in plainclothes milling among the crowds.
Louisiana State Police will deploy 150 troopers, according to Sgt. Kate Stegall.
"Technical surveillance specialists," intelligence researchers and others in a mobile command center will again tap into the city's network of hundreds of crime cameras, said Joshua Jackson, special agent in charge for the ATF's New Orleans Field Division.
Louisiana State Police and NOPD determine the placement of mobile surveillance units, and one has remained in its Super Bowl location, said Bryan Lagarde, executive director of Project NOLA National Crime Center Program.
"What we do daily around the French Quarter and parade routes is we see hand-to-hand transactions, and facial recognition helps us identify that person," Lagarde said. "We're going after the higher-intensity drug dealers who are more likely to be armed."
The federal contingent will be focused on intelligence related to known gang members and others who may be predisposed to violence, Jackson said.
Ice chest awareness
Jackson said that parade-goers should keep tabs on their bags or packages, with agents on the lookout for suspicious items or actions. Jackson acknowledged that Mardi Gras presents challenges in that regard. He said agents would not be conducting broad sweeps with dogs along the route.
"We'll wait for a report from the community of a suspicious package or bag. That's when an explosive detection canine or bomb technician would be deployed to make sure (it's) not a threat," he said.
Sometimes, agents might initiate the canine scrutiny themselves, said Jackson, who encouraged parade-goers to "remain vigilant and diligent" of unattended bags or coolers.
But Jackson insisted those checks will have a "surgical focus. It won't be random."
Kirkpatrick cautioned paradegoers against breaking the city's rules on grills, closed tents and other barred practices.
"I don't want to be the hard person that comes and enforces this ordinance," Kirkpatrick said, "but I will."
Mayor LaToya Cantrell also announced that the city will relocate the memorial for victims of the New Year's Day terror attack on Bourbon Street. In coordination with victims' families, the tribute will be moved inside the Presbytère Museum in the French Quarter, with the transition beginning Friday.
Quick response
Also on hand is a national ATF response team. Jackson described it as similar to the group that converged on a short-term rental in the St. Roch neighborhood where a Houston man stayed and set aflame before turning a pickup truck onto Bourbon Street and ramming dozens of revelers early on Jan. 1, killing 14.
"If something blows up or burns down, they're the ones that come in and get the answers back to the investigative team," Jackson said.
That team includes certified fire-science and electrical engineers, as well as explosives specialists.
ATF agents will begin parade days by sweeping Mardi Gras floats with explosives-detecting dogs hours before they roll, Jackson said. "Undercover assets" will deploy to known "problem areas" that have tended to see criminal activity in the past, DeLaune said.
"The big concern is terrorism after Jan. 1," DeLaune said. "But the reality is the majority of problems we have seen throughout the history of Mardi Gras are violence among people at the parades, or someone who is intoxicated that loses control of a vehicle."
Jackson declined to say how many ATF agents will be on hand for Mardi Gras. He said some are assigned to "quick response" teams, including SWAT team members, there to react to incidents or threats as they arise.
"They have the highest skill set of all of our federal components. They're able to deal with any enforcement action that we may have to deal with," Jackson said.
The agents work with uniformed local law enforcement — led by the New Orleans Police Department and Louisiana State Police — to "direct themselves to a person or group or object that could pose a threat to public safety," Jackson said.
Drones stay at home
Flight restrictions will be in effect over parade areas, so people should leave their drones at home or risk losing them, DeLaune said.
"You can end up in a situation where it may get instantly commandeered," DeLaune said. "We have the technology to take over that drone and land it."
During the Super Bowl, law enforcement personnel seized 33 drones, he said.
"If you put your drones up we're going to come get them," Kirkpatrick said.
What ATF agents don't expect to be doing, Jackson said, is enforcing local gun laws during the first Mardi Gras under Louisiana's new permitless concealed carry law.
Now, anyone 18 or older to carry a gun concealed without a permit, though state law bars it on parade routes.
"Very few people in our community that are willing to conduct a shooting or harm another citizen" on the parade route, Jackson said. "We're very focused on the few people who are armed who can cause a problem."
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