Summary: Personnel from the Wayne County Sheriffs Office and a host of other area law enforcement agencies are busy making final preparations for the fair.
Long before the rides and the booths spring up on the midway of the Wayne County Fairgrounds area law enforcement and social services agencies are hard at work ensuring that the fairgrounds are secure for visitors to Ohios premiere county fair.
Keeping the 30,000 plus visitors who pass through the gates each day safe doesnt happen by accident.
The Wayne County Fair Board working in conjunction with the Wayne County Sheriffs Office, Wayne County Childrens Services and a whole host of area law enforcement agencies work for months before the fair to continually improve safety measures designed to keep visitors to the fair safe.
According to Captain Charles Hardman of the Wayne County Sheriffs Office, during the fair the Sheriffs Office maintains a command center in the Armstrong Building adjacent to the grandstand. From the command center, Sheriffs deputies stay in constant radio communications with its officers throughout the grounds.
Both uniformed and plain clothed officers from multiple law enforcement agencies throughout the county work with the Sheriffs Office to keep visitors to the fair safe and secure.
From re-uniting lost children with their families to directing traffic and patrolling the sprawling fairgrounds complex Sheriffs Office deputies handle security matters within the fairgrounds and around its perimeter with assistance from members of the Wayne County Sheriffs Reserve, who also handle the infield area within the track.
That means long days for the members of the Sheriffs Department.
There are a lot of hours these folks put in in addition to their normal duty time, said Captain Charles Hardman of the Wayne County Sheriffs Office noting that because the department maintains a full complement of officers on every shift, fair duty is above and beyond their normal duty hours.
While nothing can replace good old fashioned policing to keep fairgoers safe, much has changed for safety personnel in the post September 11 world.
9/11 changed how people look at things for everyone else and us, said Hardman adding I think we are more aware of different things than we have been perhaps in the past.
As we do in our every day work we look at things a lot differently than we use to, said Hardman adding were not only having a presence at the fair but we also looking for particular things at the same time.
According to Hardman, assistance from the public continues to be critical to law enforcement personnel carrying out their duties.
Law enforcement would never be successful if it wasnt for the public, said Hardman who encourages anyone who sees something out of the ordinary to alert safety personnel.
We encourage people that if something doesnt look right or feel right to let us know and let us be the judge of that, said Hardman adding we would much rather hear about something that turned out to be nothing than not hearing anything about something.
This time for the first year the Sheriffs Office will also use social media including Twitter and Facebook to issue alerts to the over 30,000 people who visit the fair daily.
Fairgoers can join the over 10,000 people who currently follow the Wayne County Sheriff on Facebook and receive Facebook alerts posted by the department.
According to Hardman while Facebook has been a powerful tool for the law enforcement community, it does have some limitations on the speed at which information is communicated.
For that reason the Sheriffs Office has turned to another popular social media platform – Twitter.
Fairgoers who have a Twitter account can follow the department by typing in WayneSheriff and receive text message alerts on everything from missing children reports to severe weather warnings.
According to Hardman, those who dont wish to open a Twitter account can text the words Follow WayneSheriff to 40404 from their cell phones to receive the alerts. If they choose to stop receiving text alerts from the department after the fair, the alerts can easily be stopped by sending the words Unfollow WayneSheriff to the same number.
Neither the Sheriffs Department nor Twitter charge for this text messaging service but the subscriber may be charged normal messaging rates by their cell phone carrier.
Twitter is just going to be another mechanism for us to use to get information out very quickly to the public, said Hardman noting that the use of Twitter and Facebook alerts is a compliment to the fairs existing system of PA announcement alerts, which can sometimes be difficult to hear for those in noisy areas of the fairgrounds.
While 2011 marks the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks it also marks the one year anniversary of the tornado that devastated the area surrounding the OARDC campus.
When the tornado passed precariously close to the fairgrounds during the fair last year, fair officials took the opportunity to review and update the fairs emergency plan, which was approved by the Fair Board and the Wayne County Commissioners earlier this summer.
According to Hardman if severe weather approaches PA, announcements and Twitter alerts will be issued urging fairgoers to immediately get off rides and out of tents and take cover in a secure building such as the area beneath the grandstands.
