Neighbors band with police, violence interrupters to help keep the Minnesota State Fair safe
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Safety at the Minnesota State Fair spans on and off the grounds.
Outside the gates, a group of neighbors is getting ready to help. People who live in the neighborhood love the fair, and that means wanting it to be as safe as possible.
To help achieve that, they've developed a communication network that involves hundreds of neighbors, violence interrupters, and St. Paul police.
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"We started gathering, getting together, to see how we could make the neighborhood safer," said neighbor Jennifer Victor-Larsen.
For the second year now, these three women are rallying their neighbors to a common cause for the next two weeks.
"There's a lot of fun with the fair, but there's a lot of stress too with parking and traffic and people," Victor-Larsen said. "And so we are hoping to help diffuse some of that, and if people can get a little more calm and go in feeling good."
They'll have help in the form of community ambassadors who will patrol outside the fairgrounds every night from 6 a.m. to midnight. And the neighbors have a direct line to St. Paul Police command staff.
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"There is a very robust plan, both inside and outside the fair for security. Police, medical staff, neighbors. They really are the eyes and ears for us out here," said St. Paul Police Senior Commander Stacy Murphy.
"It's a lot about knowing what we need and what they can provide," said resident Kate McCreight. "We've let them know some intersections that don't seem really safe for pedestrians in traffic enforcement and things like that."
Green signs on doors signify safe houses for anyone who needs a place to rest and a cold bottle of water. And to give regular updates, texts and emails are blasted out to hundreds of neighbors.
"When there were shots fired in the fair, and then outside on Como [Avenue], because we were in contact with the fair, with neighbors, with St. Paul Police, with the ambassadors, we knew in real time what was happening," Victor-Larsen said.
Everyone at Wednesday night's prep meeting takes this seriously. They've even gone through training in first aid and de-escalation methods.
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