New Archer barriers are placed next to a gate barrier on Bourbon Street on Jan. 10, 2025. They replaced older versions that were not in place when terrorist Shamsud-Din Jabbar killed 14 people and injured 57 more on New Year’s Day. (Photo courtesy Clark Thompson)

NEW ORLEANS – With less than a month to go before it hosts Super Bowl LIX — and Mardi Gras season parades already in queue – officials are focused on the city’s remaining vulnerability to terrorist attacks like the deadly New Year’s Day truck rampage on Bourbon Street.

Experts say the misplacement and insufficient number of anti-vehicle devices around the French Quarter leads them to question whether the city is truly prepared as it readies to host more major events.

The inventor of one of the street barrier systems New Orleans uses has already swapped out existing city equipment with a newer model.

“We’re going to make all of that available to the city so they can experience it and try it,” said Peter Whitford, CEO and founder of Meridian Rapid Defense Group. His Pasadena, California-based company makes the 700-pound Archer steel wedges that can supplement cross-street barriers with protection on adjacent sidewalks.

Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, sped through the first three blocks of Bourbon Street early New Year’s Day, killing 14 people and injuring 57 more. The cross-street gate designed to keep vehicles out was left open, and the city did not put Archers in place near Bourbon’s intersection with Canal Street.

Two pairs of Archers were placed on each side of the open barrier on Bourbon Street the day after Jabbar’s attack. Whitford said many of the devices hadn’t been properly maintained, and the city was installing them improperly by using a forklift. In addition to the Archers he has exchanged and will repair under warranty, Whitford said he also provided the New Orleans Police Department with a “hauler” that allows a single officer to move and place the devices.

More troubleshooting and response are expected from no fewer than three ongoing investigations. Federal authorities, the New Orleans City Council and Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill are all looking into how the city planned and executed its security precautions.

Bill Bratton, the former police chief in New York City and Los Angeles, has been hired with funding from the private New Orleans Police and Justice Foundation to help the NOPD assess its readiness. At a news conference Friday, Bratton acknowledged his unfamiliarity with the city’s biggest annual celebration.

“I’m actually looking forward to my first Mardi Gras. I’ve never been to one,” he said.

City officials and the NOPD did not respond to questions for this report.

Another 300 Archer barriers will be brought to New Orleans and put in place in time for the Super Bowl, Whitford said. The city also continues to replace its bollard systems along Bourbon Street, although the new models are weaker than the ones removed.

At this point, it’s not clear how soon, or even if, the city will acquire any additional equipment needed to upgrade its security preparedness.

New Orleans Homeland Security Director Collin Arnold told WVUE-TV Fox 8 that Whitford was working on his own to demonstrate the Archers’ usefulness, and that “no decision has been made” on permanent crash barriers. At Bratton’s press conference, Mayor LaToya Cantrell said the city was examining “over five” different barrier designs.

Whitford said his company’s response to the New Orleans terrorism attack is in line with how it reacted during the COVID-19 pandemic, when it installed protection at drive-through testing centers at no cost.

“At some point, the city will determine what they want to do, and we want to support them in that. So, you know, that’s just part of the work that we do,” he said

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‘Bad guys don’t care’

 One of the vulnerabilities from Jan. 1 already identified involves the way French Quarter streets were barricaded.

Since 2017, the city has owned enough barriers to barricade both ends of the busiest eight-block stretch of Bourbon Street and both sides of its cross streets, not including sidewalks. City records show three wedge gates and 45 Archerswere purchased then.

In a Jan. 7 interview with WWL-AM/FM, Arnold said the city’s barriers were “typically placed a block up and a block down at each intersection up and down Bourbon Street from Iberville to St. Ann.”

Until 2023, according to an Illuminator review of aerial photos on the Orleans Parish Assessor’s website and images on Google Street View, the city indeed used its supply of wedge gates and Archers to routinely block off nearly all the 18 intersections on and around Bourbon. This pattern appeared to be in place for the better part of six years.

The barrier deployments changed radically around Mardi Gras last year. Overhead photos from the assessor’s office from the day before and the day after Fat Tuesday showed wedge gates placed with the flow of traffic on seven one-way streets, including Bourbon.

The photos also show no Archers were deployed in the French Quarter at all.

Instead, photos from the assessor’s office show the Archers were kept at an NOPD storage yard in Mid-City along the Lafitte Greenway.

The Guardian reported NOPD higher-ups found the Archers to be “pains in the ass,” leading to their withdrawal from the security plans. The city bought equipment intended to make moving Archers easier in 2017, but current NOPD personnel, according to The Guardian, had no knowledge of it.

In 2023, the city bought three new wedge gates to supplement the four they had. For the first Mardi Gras after that purchase, the Archers were not used.

The same deployment was duplicated for this past New Year’s Eve. It left Bourbon Street exposed at a minimum of 11 spots besides Jabbar’s entry point, including all eight “wrong-way” portions of the Bourbon cross streets and the far end of Bourbon itself.

“Bad guys don’t care which way they are driving,” said Jeffrey Halaut, a Texas security consultant with nearly two decades experience. In other locations with a similar layout, “both sides of each block would normally be covered.”

NOPD said it had vehicles placed at perimeter intersections but has not detailed which ones. Jabbar’s move around anNOPD SUV at Canal Street showed how easily a vehicle barricade could be defeated, reinforcing the need for the additional security provided by the Archers and wedge gates.

Colorado-based consultant Rob Reiter has worked on perimeter security for more than 20 years. He was also on the committee responsible for drafting impact standards for devices like the street barriers New Orleans has.

“A secure perimeter includes protection of a specific location like Bourbon Street from vehicle incursions coming from any direction on side streets,” Reiter said.

Wedge gates left with gaps

There are literal gaps in the city’s current security strategy for the French Quarter involving some of its cross-street barriers.

Four of its seven wedge gates, made by Delta Scientific of Palmdale, Calif., are just under 19 feet wide, making them ideal for the approximately 20-foot-wide streets that cross the busiest blocks of Bourbon Street. But on 24-foot-wide Orleans Street, there’s enough room for a vehicle to get by on the side unless Archers are properly placed.

The city’s three newer wedge gates are just 15 feet wide, leaving substantial space on each side even if they are centered. Without Archers in place, it’s not difficult for a vehicle to steer over the sidewalk like Jabbar did Jan. 1.

Why the city bought three Delta Scientific wedge gates smaller than the four they already had is unclear. The decision not to close gaps with Archer barriers appears to stem from NOPD’s recent decision to retire them from service. Last week, Whitford placed new Archers next to the wedge gates to close the gaps.

NOPD Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said Jan. 1 the Delta Scientific barrier on Bourbon near Canal Street wasn’t deployed because it was feared emergency vehicles would be shut out if it malfunctioned. Reached later, Delta Scientific President Keith Bobosky said its gates can be lowered and raised manually using gravity and an onboard hand pump if their electric motor has failed.

The gate at Bourbon and Canal was raised the day after the attack.

In addition to the replacement Archers, Whitford has brought a “rapid gate” to New Orleans. It’s been put in place of the Delta Scientific barrier at Bourbon and Canal. Instead of a hydraulic gate, it uses strong cables to stop a vehicle. They’re the same cables used on aircraft carriers to stop a jet from going overboard during landings, Whitford said.

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