NEWS PHOTO MO CRANKER
MHPS officers on bikes patrolled the annual Stampede again this year. Sgt. Mike Fischer says behaviour was good again this year.
mcranker@medicinehatnews.com@MHNmocranker
It was another year of generally good behaviour during the annual Exhibition and Stampede according to the Medicine Hat Police Service.
“Generally, things went pretty well,” said Sgt. Mike Fischer. “We didn’t have many alcohol-related issues on the grounds this year and for the most part people behaved.
“It’s nice when people can just come to the Stampede, have fun, enjoy the events and be happy.”
Every year at the Stampede the MHPS has booths set up to give out wrist bands to parents and their kids in case they get separated. This year the police had two computers at each entrance, instead of one, to help people get through quicker.
Police registered around 2,100 kids this year at their booths, which is down about 250 from 2018, and 30 kids went missing from Wednesday to Saturday.
“What’s interesting is that 23 of those 30 did not have wrist bands,” said Fischer. “Nine of the kids who went missing were four year olds, that’s a really high number for us and it makes it really tough for us to get them back to their parents.
“We had a five-year-old leave the grounds and walk home Saturday night – we spent ages looking for him and a citizen ended up calling us telling us that a young boy is sitting in front of a house crying.”
Fischer says 14 missing kids were reported on Kiddies Day, which is the case every year, and 12 were reported missing on Saturday.
“When you have that many kids running around and the grounds basically at capacity – it happens,” he said. “We just need people to take the time to sign up and get wrist bands – it just makes reuniting everyone that much easier.
“South Alberta Search and Rescue always comes out on Kiddies Day and having 20 or so extra bodies makes everything so much easier – a big shout out to them for always helping.”
Fischer says all children who were reported missing were reunited with their parents.
Fischer added there were two physical altercations police responded two but both were “minor” and had mostly broken up as police arrived.
Police dealt with one theft from a vendor and did not have any issues with carnival staff.
Fischer added that police arrested one person with outstanding warrants.
