California State Fair focused on safety as it returns after COVID cancellations
Before the pandemic, before the gates to the California State Fair & Food Festival closed for two years, the authorities there were happy to announce an absence of trouble.
In July 2019, after three days of traditional California fair, food and midway fun, the Cal Expo police announced no arrests for the opening weekend. This was unusual: The announcement marked the first time in a decade that the weekend had not been marred by trouble.
And it certainly marked an improvement over 2018’s opening night, which erupted in violence, with 10 people ejected from the fairgrounds and the sounds of apparent gunfire in the parking lot.
Enter 2022, with precautions and concern. Fun and crowds have proved to be a volatile combination in Sacramento this year.
This year’s fair, which kicks off Friday and runs through July 31, is also preparing to open its gates during a year of seemingly unceasing mass violence across the country including three deadly mass shootings in Sacramento since March.
After the latest fatal shooting in downtown Sacramento outside Mix Downtown early July 4 that wounded four and left a popular high school football coach dead, a pair of Sacramento nightclubs closed their doors over the weekend. The owners and operators of Mix and The Park Ultra Lounge said the break provided the downtown community “time to heal and recover.”
These are uneasy times but officials at Cal Expo on Exposition Drive say they are prepared to restart the annual two-week event and ready to reassure fairgoers that this year’s state fair will be a safe one.
Rick Pickering, California State Fair CEO, on Friday laid out the steps, some visible, many behind the scenes, that he says back up the claim and more important will ensure the safety of the tens of thousands expected to walk through the fair’s gates during the next two weeks.
“The State Fair is the safest square-mile in Sacramento County this July. We’re a vital part of the community,” Pickering said. “It far exceeds anywhere (families) could send their children. Having our entire police force here, the precautions in place that the state fair does — they’ll walk through metal detectors; there’s 200-plus surveillance cameras.”
New restrictions
About 600,000 walked through the gates in 2019 and, as with all entertainment attractions, they must adhere to restrictions. For example, new this year is the requirement that youth under 18 must be accompanied by an adult 21 or older after 6 p.m. Friday through Sunday. Any youth younger than 18 who is not accompanied by an adult will not be admitted.
Community and youth advocate Berry Accius said the new restriction is misguided and said the State Fair would be better served by having more people on the grounds who regularly talk and work with young people in the community — people, Accius said, “who know the landscape of youth.”
“It doesn’t make any kind of sense. We know a lot of the demographic is going to be targeted by this and that’s people of color,” he said. “For them to do that, it’s not a good way to celebrate coming back from two years of COVID. You’re isolating people who’ve already been isolated. I don’t want (the fair) to fail, but I don’t want it to backfire.”
Accius pointed to lessons learned at Arden Fair mall where brawling teens led Arden Fair’s owners to ban young people from the center for a time. Arden Fair eventually turned to Accius and community organization Brother 2 Brother for guidance. Their community ambassadors have been at work at the mall for the last four years, he said.
“We have trusted ambassadors who work with these kids,” Accius said. “We’ve transformed the culture. These young people know not to mess up.”
Other steps are seemingly small, such as the clear bags for belongings now required for entry — a new policy borrowed from Golden 1 Center and test-driven with success at adjacent Bonney Field during Republic FC matches.
The bags must be clear plastic, vinyl or PVC and be no larger than 12 inches by 12 inches by 12 inches or a 1-gallon clear plastic bag or a small clutch. The fair offers a list of exceptions on its website.
A “bag valet” service outside the fairgrounds’ two main gates will be available for fairgoers who came unprepared. Lockers are also available to secure belongings both in and outside the venue.
Handbags, backpacks and bags are subject to search. Firearms are banned as are explosives and sharp objects. A new state fair code of conduct went into effect in June allowing fair staff to screen patrons for prohibited items including drugs and outside alcohol.
Patrons will also notice the police presence — California’s state fairgrounds is the only fairgrounds in the state with a full-time, year-round police force, say fair officials.
“We’re the only fairgrounds in the state with more than 100 officers on the payroll,” Pickering said.
Pickering said State Fair police also work with local agencies including Sacramento Police Department and Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office and an assortment of state and federal agencies from California Highway Patrol and state Alcoholic Beverage Control to Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and federal Department of Homeland Security.
Fair officials also share security protocols with other law enforcement agencies across the country, Pickering said, “networking with folks who are constantly learning” new safety tactics.
Other fairs beef up security, too
The fair is debuting its volunteer Walk-Along program on evenings and weekends, which officials say is an “opportunity for community members to work hand-in-hand with the California Expo police officers to help keep the State Fair safe.”
People in the program shadow a team of fair police officers on three-hour shifts, act as a community liaison and field questions from fair patrons.
State fairs across the country including some of the nation’s oldest and largest have taken similar steps to beef up security and reassure a rattled public that their fairgrounds remain a safe space.
Ahead of the upcoming Ohio State Fair in late July, Ohio Highway Patrol announced it will increase security, boost patrols and add security cameras, according to news reports. Fair patrons will be searched and will enter the grounds only after passing through metal detectors.
“Just know that while you’re there, you are going to see an increased presence of law enforcement,” Ohio Highway Patrol Lt. Nathan Dennis told Cleveland television station WCMH earlier this month. “Everywhere you go at the state fairgrounds, you should see a state trooper,” he said.
Iowa’s state fair in recent years stood up its own police force, joining other states with a year-round fair patrol.
Like California, August’s Wisconsin State Fair will require guests under 18 entering after 6 p.m. must be accompanied by a parent or guardian 21 or older. All patrons are subject to search and must pass through metal detectors.
Cameras, ID and face coverings
More and updated metal detectors have also been installed at Cal Expo, Pickering said, and a network of security cameras are also trained on the fair’s grounds and venues.
▪ The cameras, Pickering says, are a byproduct of the fair layout’s secondary function as the emergency seat of California state government.
“The grounds also serve as a fallback seat of state government for the State Capitol, so we have more than 200 security and surveillance cameras on site,” Pickering said. The fairgrounds are monitored on-site in real time 24 hours a day.
▪ Bring ID. The new rules regarding minors’ admission will require that. Anyone entering the fairgrounds may be asked to show a California driver’s license or government-issued ID.
▪ Facial coverings or other items that obscure the face except those worn for medical and health reasons are also banned.
As at California’s state fairgrounds, Wisconsin marshals a full-time state fair park police force of 115 officers including a major incident response team and a regional joint command center on the park’s grounds.
In Sacramento, medical services including responders AMR with its advanced life support capability are on the grounds. Pickering says as many as 40 medical staff will be on-site during the fair.
Restrictions don’t only apply to the fairgoers. A private firm, Pickering said, inspects and reviews the fair’s rides and other amusement; reviews event seating and fair accommodations providing daily reports and updates. And those people you interact with? They have been checked out, too. All fair employees must undergo background checks including Megan’s Law checks and drug testing.
This story was originally published July 13, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
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