WEST ALLIS, WI (Wisconsin Radio Network-WSAU) – Thousands of people will attend the Wisconsin State Fair, which opened on Thursday, and they’ll want to enjoy it safely.
State Fair Park CEO Kathleen O’Leary says the fairgrounds has its own 100-member police force, metal detectors, and bag searches. “And yes, there are challenges, but at the forefront of everything that we do at the Wisconsin State Fair is our safety initiative.”
The fair opens just days after a shooting at a festival in northern California. The shooter killed himself, three other people, and wounded twelve more. “We have been taking it very serious,” O’Leary said. “We’re doing everything we can to safeguard, and to make sure the visitors, while they’re at the Wisconsin State Fair, are safe.”
The Wisconsin State Fair had its own security concerns in 2011, when gangs of youth marauded in the parking lot, harassing fair-goers and breaking into cars. Then-governor Scott Walker ordered the Wisconsin State Patrol to increase its presence at the fairgrounds the next day.
