Arlington police say they have reviewed their plan for security at the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic after the attack in the French Quarter of New Orleans the morning of the Sugar Bowl.
The suspect in the attack lived in Houston, and the FBI believes he acted alone.
"This was just a horrible culmination of a lot of things that happened," Arlington Police Deputy Chief Leo Daniels said. "We look at those situations, whether they're local or happening around the world, we look at all of those and make adjustments."
Daniels runs the department's Event Management Unit. After the attack, he said Arlington Police got in touch with city leaders, departments in other parts of the metroplex along with state and federal agencies.
"We are going to be enhancing some of our security positions," he said. "We're not planning to make a lot of changes because we feel like we have a great plan in place, but we will be looking at what we have."
Daniels said Arlington police have strong relationships with other organizations and the private sector. He said they have also been working with the Dallas Cowboys, AT&T Stadium, and Cotton Bowl Association.
"What we want people to know is we have a very robust safety plan. We want them to know it's going to be a safe, fun event," he said. "You will see more presence, you will see more cars, but as far as the number of officers, we always have a very robust plan and a lot of officers out there."
In the past two years, Arlington has hosted the World Series, a victory parade, Major League Baseball's All-Star Game, PBR World Finals, and three nights of Taylor Swift concerts at AT&T Stadium. After each major event, Daniels said Arlington police meet to talk about what went wrong and what they could do better. He said those meetings can lead to changes ranging from security to traffic flow.
"We're used to large events, but having said that, we don't want to rest on our laurels," he said. "We don't want to believe things don't need to be adjusted, improved, changed or enhanced. We can make minor changes even if we believe we've done things well."
He said that the desire to always improve led Arlington Police and the city to review plans for the Cotton Bowl after the New Orleans attack. He said they did not make "wholesale changes," but they did make adjustments.
"That was a very unfortunate situation that happened in New Orleans. Our prayers go out to the entire city and all the victims of that horrible incident, but we understand we can make minor changes even if we think we've done things well," Daniels said.
The University of Texas will face Ohio State in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic at AT&T Stadium on Friday, Jan. 10.
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