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Walz and law enforcement officials discuss safety at upcoming State Fair [1]
['Baylor Spears', 'More From Author', '- August']
Date: 2022-08
Gov. Tim Walz and law enforcement officials discussed safety at this year’s Minnesota State Fair, where upwards of 100,000 people per day are expected starting Thursday.
“Minnesotans need to know that this team has put together an incredible plan, that they’re out here to assist folks,” Walz said. He said fair police will also seek to prevent people from bringing in guns.
The Minnesota State Agricultural Society, the state entity that hosts the fair, enforces a gun ban that was recently upheld by a federal judge. Security guards have conducted bag checks since at least 2016, and all entry gates use walk-through metal detectors.
Last year, a large crowd — one reportedly armed — attempted to storm the fairground gates, though chemical agents were used to stop them. In 2019, three people were shot near the ground gates, and a woman was hit by a car on closing day.
Walz, a first-term DFL governor running for reelection, has been on the receiving end of relentless attacks from his GOP opponent Scott Jensen about the elevated violent crime rates of the past two years. The Mall of America in Bloomington, another large scale meeting spot on the outskirts of the Twin Cities, saw gunfire recently.
The commissioner of the Department of Public Safety John Harrington said a threat assessment yielded nothing overly concerning. All the planning has been routine for a large event, he said.
Harrington said this year’s expanded safety plans aren’t specifically related to any one instance, including those in the last couple of years. “You bring 2 million people together in a place for any extended period of time and add a little alcohol, and there are going to be issues,” he said.
While the threat assessment is low, officials said this year’s plan is meant to strengthen safety.
State Fair Police Chief Ron Knafla said about 200 officers — including State Fair officers and others from about 55 agencies across the state — will be working throughout the 12 days, using some new strategies.
“Some of those will not be obvious to fairgoers, some of them will,” Knafla said. “We’re certainly going to keep some of that from being public at this point because that works to our advantage.”
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[1] Url:
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