After New Orleans attack, Coloradans consider security in public places

The day after the new year, families were at the Downtown Denver Rink at Skyline Park keeping things busy. It was a night out in which thoughts about apparent terrorism in New Orleans hung over much of the nation.

 "It's a reminder of the dangers that we do have," said parent Bruce Johnson.

"At the end of the day this is kind of what life is about," he said as his kids drank hot chocolate.

Mass killings and acts of terrorism have shifted thoughts about safety in America, said Murphy Robinson, formerly Denver's director of public safety who now runs several security firms. People are thinking of it more often.

"Not just at the dining room, kitchen table, but at work, at school, and even when we go and play with our friends and family."

It has evolved to cost us more of our thoughts and money.

"Security was one of those things before Columbine and before 9-11 was one of those things that we thought about but didn't pay attention to," he said.

 Threats come from guns, vehicles and explosives, and there are worries about others as well.

"There's a long list of things that we could sit here and talk about for many, many hours," said Robinson.

Threats have resulted in evolving law enforcement and security planning as well as architectural changes like the kinds of barriers that were reportedly being repaired at the end of Bourbon Street when the attack occurred New Year's Day.

"It's certainly a demand in the business, it's become more dangerous certainly," said Jack Mousseau, a partner and principal at MOA Architecture in Denver.

"The more you can make your building look like a difficult target, cameras around, access control systems, hardened entries, identification on doors and windows, those types of things," he said.

 MOA has designed many school buildings which now incorporate barriers on the outside of the building and many changes inside.

"You'll have a secured entry vestibule that if you are coming into the building to do harm, you're captured in that space between the outer doors and another inner set of doors."

Classrooms will have windows to hallways to be able to see inside so first responders can get a better look at what's going on inside.

But it's expensive.

"The technology systems that we put into buildings today run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. ... Bullet resistant glazing systems, they run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars."

They have learned a great deal. Cameras are most useful after the fact to identify suspects, but during emergencies of short duration, less useful. And they attempt to design schools and buildings without making people feel jailed.

"They can be natural barriers like large boulders we use a lot of times that aesthetically look a lot better. Don't look like a prison, but same objective to keep a vehicle from penetrating a building or getting into a crowd."

If the crowd at the ice rink downtown was any indication, people are undeterred in Denver by the reported terrorism in New Orleans. Parent Kaitlyn Finger worries about her kids, but won't be afraid to take them out.

"No. no. no. That's a jail in your own mind."