Keeping Festivals Fun and Safe

WEST POINT, Miss. (WCBI)- The Prairie Arts Festival kicks off Saturday, but local law enforcement has been gearing up for a while.

“We actually started planning for this months ago. Getting ready we’ll have mobile command out there and at this point, we will have deputies that will be in amongst the crowd. We will have eyes and ears all over the place will be keeping us informed,” said Sheriff Eddie Scott.

Sheriff Eddie Scott says they plan for the worst while hoping for the best. And it can’t be done alone.

“You are looking at thousands of people that’s coming into our community, so it takes us all working together. With the first responder’s agencies coming together, working with the city, working with the county leaders, the supervisors, the alderman and trying to put it all together. It takes a team effort to make sure that everybody comes here is safe and that they leave our county and city and enjoyable experience,” said Sheriff Scott.

And they’re not just there to keep an eye out for the bad guys.

“If anybody needs anything, all they have to do is let an officer know, or one of the volunteers or any of the event staff know. There are a lot of people that will be available to help with any issue that anybody may have,” said Captain Virginia Rich.

“You have people that from heat exhaustion, people getting key locked in their cars. So it’s a real variety of services that we have to perform. So we go from A-to-Z and being able to help people get here And leave safely,” said Sheriff Scott.

Captain Virginia Rich encourages people to still keep an eye on your surroundings while still having a good time.

“We just ask everybody to just pay attention to what’s going on around them. Enjoy it have fun that is the purpose of it, and we are excited about it, and we welcome everybody to the community,” said Captain Rich.

Security preparations begin Friday night once streets start to close.