From One Corner of the Rose Parade Route, a Pasadena Company Grew to Redefine Event Security Worldwide

The first time a Pasadena-based company called Meridian played a role in protecting the Rose Parade, it secured what many might consider a small order. It was asked to protect just one intersection. A single corner. But it was a very, very important one indeed.

“We started with Pasadena back in 2018, and we were asked to come along and protect their most vulnerable area, which was ‘TV corner,'” explained Peter Whitford, the chief executive officer and founder of Meridian Rapid Defense Group.

Before that, the parade had relied on simpler measures—bike racks and water-filled barriers, deployed along the route beginning in 2017 after terrorist truck attacks in Europe alarmed security planners in the weeks before that year’s event. But by 2018, those water barriers had fallen out of favor. A Pasadena Police Department staff report states that the department used Archer Anti-Terrorism Vehicle Barriers in 2018 and 2019 “after learning of the inadequate security the water barriers provided.”

The Archer 1200 system offered something different: barriers measuring two feet wide, four feet long and three feet high, each weighing between 685 and 700 pounds. When linked together, they can stop a vehicle within seven to 15 feet of engagement. A device called the Archer Hauler reduces the transfer weight to 27 pounds during deployment, making rapid installation possible.

What began at a single intersection has grown dramatically. On New Year’s Day, more than 800 barriers now form what Whitford describes as a “ring of steel” around the Rose Parade route, the Rose Bowl and Floatfest.

The system has been tested under real conditions. Barriers have stopped vehicles from reaching the parade route on two occasions, according to Whitford. Pasadena Police Chief Eugene Harris described one such incident in a televised interview with CBS News Los Angeles.

“You may remember last year we had an incursion where a vehicle tried to come through one of those barriers, into the parade route, and it stopped that vehicle and protected a lot of folks,” Harris said. “We swear by those. They’ve been very effective for us.”

The city’s investment has grown accordingly. In 2019, the City Council approved a five-year contract for barrier rentals along the parade route, with a not-to-exceed amount of $550,000—$110,000 per year—charged to the city’s New Year’s Day Fund. In 2023, Pasadena approved an additional $83,340 purchase for eight barriers, a trailer, accessories and training, funded through a federal Urban Area Security Initiative grant. City staff reports note that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has designated the Archer 1200 system as Qualified Anti-Terrorism Technology under the SAFETY Act, providing legal liability protections to end users.

Pasadena’s adoption has influenced other jurisdictions. In November 2024, the City of Downey approved the purchase of 20 Archer 1200 barriers for $224,917, citing their use at the Tournament of Roses Parade and their DHS certification.

“Other cities, other counties, other law enforcement agencies that were out there saw that the gold standard was being used in Pasadena,” Whitford said.

Meridian Rapid Defense Group remains headquartered in Pasadena, near the parade route where its barriers were first deployed in 2018. Since then, the company has expanded to provide security for professional sports leagues, major civic events, presidential inaugurations and international venues—while continuing to play a central role in Pasadena’s New Year’s Day operations.