“We have much work to do,” Hunter writes, “to ensure that an anti-terrorist component is part of the planning process for every special event that attracts thousands – Mardi Gras, festivals and holiday celebrations, even our Sunday second-line parades.”

Ever since the 9/11 terrorist attacks that took down the World Trade towers in New York, cities been more aware that these tragedies can happen anywhere. In particular, the city of New Orleans has been declared a soft target for a terrorist attack, partly because of the large crowds that gather here, on our streets.

After the New Year’s Day Bourbon Street attack, I began to ask around, to see how we were preparing. We have much work to do, to ensure that an anti-terrorist component is part of the planning process for every special event that attracts thousands – Mardi Gras, festivals and holiday celebrations, even our Sunday second-line parades.

The NOPD leadership should consider the following steps:

1. Enhance the relationship between the NOPD Intelligence Unit and the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force.
   
2. Send a NOPD team to the New York Police Department Anti- Terrorist Unit to establish a similar anti-terrorist unit within the NOPD.
   
3. Go after all available federal anti-terrorism resources and training.
   
4. Think outside the box, using technology such as drones and cameras for major events.

We need not only a security plan for protecting tourists, visitors and major events, but also a security plan for the rest of us who live in the city. Mrs. Thanh Vu, a longtime business owner was robbed and killed in her grocery store in the early days of 2025. There were two other murders during the same relative time span as the terrorist attack on Bourbon Street. The daily toll of gun violence in our city has chipped away at our city for decades.

We must also learn from this tragedy and implement the right strategy and tactics to ensure tourists, visitors and all of us feel safe.

The lessons learned go beyond policing. For instance, I strongly suspect our tourism industry is taking a negative hit because of the terrorist attack. As we work to help the hospitality industry rebuild, we also must look to other sectors, to grow and diversify our economy, providing jobs and tax revenue beyond the hospitality industry.

Just as our police department must reflexively include anti-terrorism components across its work, our business community and economic-development agencies must constantly be working to broaden the New Orleans economy, in a way that trains, educates and stably employs more local residents.

Arthur Hunter, Jr., an occasional contributor to The Lens, is a former New Orleans Police Department officer and retired Orleans Parish Criminal District Court judge.