By Jessie Yeung, Holly Yan and Omar Jimenez, CNN

(CNN) — As New Orleans kicks off its extravagant Carnival season this week, Louisiana is launching a new investigation into the New Year’s Day massacre that killed 14 people while the city will get more federal resources to help prevent another horrific attack.

State Attorney General Liz Murrill has ordered the Louisiana Bureau of Investigation “to open a full review of security plans from New Year’s Eve and the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans,” her office said in a statement Monday.

The state’s review is expected to delve into existing security assessments and recommendations; funding sources; how local, state and federal funding is used for security measures; and operation failures, the attorney general’s office said.

On the same day, New Orleans received SEAR 1 status – one of the highest designations for event security by the Department of Homeland Security – for Mardi Gras on March 4, a spokesperson for Mayor LaToya Cantrell told CNN.

The Special Event Assessment Rating (SEAR) designation and five-tiered ranking system determines whether events require federal security help such as field intelligence teams, air security, bomb detection dogs and more. The top tier, SEAR 1, is reserved for “significant events” with national or international importance requiring “extensive” support.

The new SEAR 1 status for Mardi Gras covers parades and certain related events in New Orleans from February 21 to March 4, the White House said in a statement.

The Super Bowl, which New Orleans will be hosting next month, has long been designated SEAR 1. Despite sharing the same security status, each major event comes with unique challenges.

The difficulties securing Mardi Gras vs. the Super Bowl

Unlike a fixed stadium, Mardi Gras takes place “on multiple streets, and it’s a moving parade,” former New Orleans Police Superintendent Michael Harrison told CNN.

“How do you protect people who are at a parade on one side of the street and on the other side of that main street (and) eliminate the flow of traffic?” Harrison said.

During Harrison’s time as police chief, a drunken driver plowed into Mardi Gras parade-goers in 2017, injuring 28 people.

New Orleans hosted multiple Super Bowls during Harrison’s career at the police department. Security extends far beyond the stadium itself, he said.

There is an “inner perimeter and outer perimeter” he said. “It starts about a block or two away where we can sterilize the area, and there’s time to process all the people and now vehicles that may be going into the garage.”

The security presence extends to large hotels, Harrison said.

“There are so many celebrities from around the world that we now have multiple hotels that are now targets, with tens of thousands of people in large hotels where we have to have police presence at each one of them,” he said.

“Every hotel that hosts people coming into New Orleans for the Super Bowl is a potential target – just like the Superdome is, just like Bourbon Street is.”

New details emerge about a report warning about vehicle attacks in New Orleans

Parts of a 2019 report from a security consulting firm noted the risk of vehicular attacks in New Orleans’ French Quarter and urged the city to upgrade safety barriers.

A shorter, public version of the report has been available online since 2020. But the full, confidential report recently obtained by CNN reveals more details.

Security in New Orleans’ French Quarter was hampered by politicking among law enforcement agencies, private security entities and stakeholders, according to the full 2019 report. The firm, Interfor International, found French Quarter security was “handled in a patchwork manner.”

It’s unclear which – if any – of the report’s recommendations were implemented.

Local, state and federal urgency

Gov. Jeff Landry declared a state of emergency shortly after the New Year’s Day massacre, saying the state would allow New Orleans to deploy additional resources as it prepares to see “hundreds of thousands of visitors in the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl and Mardi Gras.”

“Extensive coordination and security measures are necessary to secure areas around the events and ensure public safety from the threats associated with these events,” he wrote.

New Orleans police also are stepping up measures, saying they had a “comprehensive security plan in place” for the first parade scheduled Monday and for all parades going forward.

A New Orleans police spokesperson said “we are hardening our targets and strategically placing resources to ensure the event is safe and enjoyable for everyone,” a police spokesperson told CNN in a statement on Sunday. “While we cannot disclose specific operational details, we want to assure the public that we are fully prepared and working closely with our partners to provide a secure environment.”

On Sunday, Mayor Cantrell said the city had requested federal assistance in asking a tactical expert to map out the city and determine what weak spots could be targeted or might need further security. She said authorities will also ask an expert to determine whether existing security measures, such as their road barriers and barricades, are sufficient.

“If they’re not (sufficient), how and what and where do they need to be placed?” the mayor said. “This is a work in progress, and we’re committed to doing everything necessary to ensure public safety measures.”

In addition to the new federal SEAR 1 designation for Mardi Gras, President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden visited New Orleans on Monday. They laid flowers at a Bourbon Street shrine for the victims and bowed their heads.

Questions linger about missing road barriers

Despite warnings years ago, questions remain about why there were no strong barriers to protect revelers in the city’s bustling French Quarter.

The 2019 report “strongly recommends” safety structures known as bollards –– vertical posts that can move up and down –– be fixed and improved “immediately.”

But there were no such sturdy bollards on New Year’s Eve. The bollards system has been under repair for weeks, with new barriers set to be installed before the Super Bowl on February 9.

New Orleans does own temporary barriers, yellow barricades known as Archer barriers, that could have blocked access to Bourbon Street – but decided not to use them, a source familiar with the report told CNN. Instead, a single police cruiser was used to block off Bourbon Street at Canal Street on New Year’s Eve.

New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said she did not know the city owned the yellow safety devices, which were put in place after the tragedy.

City councilmember Jean-Paul Morrell said he’s determined to learn what may have gone wrong.

“I know from my perspective as the incoming Council president, we are going to do our own deep-dive investigation over the coming weeks,” Morrell said.

“New Orleans is a destination for pretty much every holiday you can imagine, so … not having hardened infrastructure even temporarily there instead of the bollards as they’re placed throughout the Quarter – is problematic.”

CNN’s Pamela Brown, Dakin Andone, Josh Campbell, Sam Fossum and Devon Sayers contributed to this report.

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