BATON ROUGE - Following the attack in New Orleans, The FBI and Department of Homeland Security are warning law enforcement nationwide about the possibility of copycat attacks.WBRZ spoke with local law enforcement about how the warnings are being handled. Over the next few months, events like marathons, the Super Bowl, St. Patrick's Day parades, and numerous Mardi Gras celebrations will take place in Louisiana.The Baton Rouge Police Department and Pointe Coupee Sheriff's Office are two agencies that both have large events coming up.BRPD told WBRZ they're on a heightened alert and are paying attention to messages on social media. They want concerned citizens to reach out if they have concerns."Making sure we're getting the words from concerned citizens that will give us a call if they know of anybody attempting to do anything. We're doing an overview, working with Homeland Security and overall preparedness in an attempt to prevent something like that from happening, and if it does indeed happen, we will have all parties in place to respond and act accordingly," BRPD Lt. L'Jean McKneely said.BRPD says they will have officers in place at every event, such as their special response team, and officers in plain clothes working as well."We have officers in place at every event. We fill all the slots that are available to us to fill when we work in those special events. We have our SRT team out there, our Special Response Team. We have officers in plain clothes out working those events," McKneely said.They want to make clear that citizens have a part to play as well."They see things before we see them because it's more the community than law enforcement at these events and they pay attention to what's going on. A lot of community members come forward with information when they see something happen," McKneely said.In Pointe Coupee Parish, Sheriff Rene Thibodeaux says its Mardi Gras parade brings in over 100,000 visitors each year. He brings in law enforcement from other areas to assist with it. He says safety is always the top priority, especially with the news from the FBI.Permalink| Comments