The major Mardi Gras celebrations gearing up this weekend are expecting warm weather, an influx of tourists and increased surveillance following recent global terrorist attacks.
Mardi Gras goers can expect to be monitored by the police more than ever before.
“Assume you are being filmed wherever you are and whatever you are doing,” said New Orleans FBI Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey Sallet in a Jan. 19 press conference, according to a report by NOLA.com | The Times Picayune.
All New Orleans police officers will be working during Mardi Gras season, and deputies and officers from other departments, such as Tulane University’s, will be joining them.
The FBI assigned about 100 agents for Mardi Gras security and plans to monitor social media networks for potential terrorist threats.
Officers plan to use “behavioral detection,” which the Huffington Post described as “staring into crowds of people in an attempt to identify suspicious behavior.”
The New Orleans Police Department is receiving aid from the Massachusetts State Police Department, which faced similar circumstances after the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.
Mass communication sophomore Melanie Smith said she grew up going to New Orleans parades. She said the trepidation was part of the incentive for her and her family to go out of town this Mardi Gras to ski.
According to a Jan. 28 press release from New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, the New Orleans Emergency Medical Services and the American Red Cross will have first aid tents, which were stationed on the parade route this past weekend along St. Charles Ave. and Canal street They will be placed at the same locations this coming weekend.
With everything happening globally, Smith said, New Orleans is a perfect venue for an attack because of the hoards of people and chaos.
“I just think it’s a very sketchy place to be this time, right now,” she said.
Mass communication freshman Tiffany Landry said she trusts the police, but people need to be aware of their surroundings and report suspicious behavior.
She had not initially heard about the increased security, and she said it is concerning and feels like a violation of privacy.
But Landry said Mardi Gras is still tradition, and she still expects to enjoy herself.
LSUPD spokesperson Marshall Walters said he imagines the response is federal more than local.
The 9/11 attack, he said, changed the way large-scale events are handled. In light of the Boston Marathon bombing, he said, events on as large a scale as Mardi Gras should be considered potential targets.
“It’s not surprising at all,” he said about the police expansion. “The day and the world we live in, you have to be prepared. We prepare for the worst in everything and hope for the best.”
Walters said that while LSUPD does not work Mardi Gras, he can understand NOPD’s efforts to police such large crowds having worked gamedays.