Saratoga Police Chief Mike Morris discusses how his department is planning for annual summer event
The Independence Day weekend and Saratoga Days are just around the corner, bringing with it headlining act Lita Ford. With yet another big name in music coming to perform for free in Saratoga, the Saratoga Police Department is working to prepare for the event.
“Last year, the Saratoga Days Committee did an exceptional job of planning,” said Chief Mike Morris. “It was very well run. We had very few issues last year.”
Few issues, however, doesn’t mean there weren’t any issues. According to Morris, one of the primary issues experienced last year was difficulty in communication between first responders and dispatch. Most of this was due to the noise of the event, so this year law enforcement officers and first responders will have earpieces with their radio equipment to better communicate.
“We’ll be utilizing a second dispatcher to just handle the Saratoga Days event in addition to our normal dispatcher that would handle the day-to-day stuff,” said Morris.
Morris also said that first responders and law enforcement will be placed on either end of Bridge Avenue, which has also been split into quadrants to make it easier to dispatch someone to a particular section in case of a call. Along with an increased presence in law enforcement and first responders, the Saratoga Police Department will also be working on other ways to communicate with the public.
“We’ll have our traffic signs showing the speed limit. We’re in talks with the State [of Wyoming] right now to bring some message boards down to help warn the motoring public about the pedestrians that are going to and from [the event],” said Morris. “We’ll also have a message board on the east side of Bridge Street.”
The police department is also working with Lenny Layman, Carbon County Office of Emergency Management, to set up an opt-in text messaging service for the weekend. By texting “SaratogaWY24” to 38276, anyone in the area can opt-in for messaging about weather or emergencies in the area.
“We’ll hopefully start that messaging on the 4th of July or just prior to the 4th,” said Morris. “The messaging itself will be turned off on Sunday. This is just a temporary messaging program through AlertSense.”
Should there be any emergencies, Morris advised the best number to call is still 911.
“I can assure everyone that the system we’ve got, while it might not be perfect right now, it does work,” said Morris.
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