Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - "I was stunned to think that, somehow, an individual was able to defeat what should have been a barricaded roadway," said Jeff Rinaldo, Vice President of the Tarian Group, a security firm, reacting to the deadly New Year's truck attack on Bourbon Street in New Orleans.
"I was very surprised to hear that the road was not properly barricaded."
There are growing questions about security and why bollards and barricades were not properly set up. Louisiana officials say after multiple malfunctions, they were in the process of replacing the bollards ahead of the Super Bowl. They used patrol cars instead to block traffic. However, it was a tragic failure as the suspect got around the patrol car by driving on the sidewalk.
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Rinaldo, a former Buffalo Police captain, believes it was a security failure.
"If you don't have bollards, there are other things you can do. You can park garbage trucks, or fire trucks. There are devices you can put on the street that, when in contact with a vehicle, prevent that vehicle from continuing."
Vehicle barrier systems, which can include features like retractable spikes, portable bollards, or electronically controlled barriers that deploy across the road to puncture tires or physically block the vehicle's path when activated.
Rinaldo said the decision to use patrol cars and wooden barricades, and not focus on how else someone could defeat it, is, in his words, "very disheartening."
For Buffalo's New Year's Eve Ball Drop at Roosevelt Plaza, police staged plow trucks and other heavy equipment to protect the crowd, along with SWAT teams and K-9 dogs.
"The whole point of these security systems is to minimize the amount of carnage someone can cause if they decided to try to use a vehicle as a weapon," he explained.
Rinaldo expects there will be a lot of questions asked, and an in depth investigation into who made the call, in terms of security for the New Year's Eve event, and who was responsible for approving the security plan.
The Bourbon Street attack has already led to beefed up security in Washington D.C. with an additional police presence on the street..
With several major events coming up, Rinaldo was asked if we should expect to see additional security at football games, the inauguration of President-elect Trump and other mass events?
"Absolutely," he responded. "I can tell you that all of the events that we provide security for, we are constantly taking a look at what we're doing, what is working, what we can improve upon. It's especially true around major sporting events. The amount of resources and time and effort that goes into securing these venues is massive. They are constantly looking at these plans and when things like this unfortunately happen, they look at how it can happen here. And, what can we do to prevent it from happening here."
People, he said, should expect to see a heightened amount of security at future events, especially mass gatherings.