TULSA, Okla. — With the Tulsa State Fair over halfway, FOX23 checked in with the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office to see how things are going overall.
People head out to the Tulsa State Fair every year for some fall fun, from the food to the games and the rides. However, with that many people, tempers sometimes flare.
TCSO Capt. Michael Moore said one of the biggest problems they deal with is teens fighting.
“Whatever real or perceived or conflicts or beefs they have that they bring to the fair. Usually from school or something that has nothing to do with the fair and they think they’ll settle it here,” Moore said.
A stabbing happened on the midway last Friday.
Moore said the victim spent a night and a day in the hospital but has been released and is recovering. 18-year-old Brandon Farris was arrested.
Moore said other than that incident, the fair has run otherwise smoothly and crime trends as a whole are down this year.
He said that two teens brought guns to the fair, but they were quickly recovered.
“Through proactive policing, through interdiction, it wasn’t because they got to the point where they were actually being used, threatening someone,” Moore said.
Two guns is a fraction of the number that deputies recovered last year. By the end of the 2023 Tulsa State Fair, deputies had recovered 16 guns.
Another problem deputies see is missing children. Moore said year-to-year those numbers are about the same.
TCSO has reunited around 35 lost children, which is about average for this time in the fair.
If you come to the fair, you will see several Tulsa County deputies in golf carts or walking around to keep an eye on everyone.
It’s the good old-fashioned police work combined with the new technology FOX23 has told you about such as cameras that use facial recognition that Moore said keeps everyone as safe as possible.
“They’ve been extremely helpful, especially with lost and found children and helping us solve crimes. We’ve added a lot of drone capabilities when it’s really really busy, when the midway is packed,” Moore said.