Photo By Scott Sturkol | Members of the public check out the Fort McCoy display at the Sparta National Night...... read more read more
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Police personnel with Fort McCoy’s Directorate of Emergency Services (DES) took numerous vehicles and equipment to support the 21st annual Monroe County National Night Out event Aug. 6 in Tomah, Wis., and the third National Night Out event, also Aug. 6, in Sparta, Wis.
Hundreds of people attended each event. The Monroe County National Night Out was held for four hours at Tomah’s Recreation Park. It was the second time at that park. Sparta’s National Night Out event was held at the city’s Memorial Park.
Introduced in 1984 by the National Association of Town Watch, National Night Out is a nonprofit crime-prevention organization that works in cooperation with thousands of crime-watch groups and law-enforcement agencies throughout the country. Representatives of the Tomah Police Department said local officials know it helps build relationships that help create safe communities.
Fort McCoy DES had numerous pieces of equipment and vehicles as well as more than a dozen people from both the police and fire departments at both events. Fort McCoy police personnel also educated people about Operation Family Safe at the Sparta National Night Out, which included EZ child-identification (ID) stations that provided ID materials for dozens of children.
At the Tomah event, Fort McCoy had vehicles and equipment displayed, including a new inflatable “football” game.
“We got the game just under a couple months ago,” said Fort McCoy Police Chief Brian Bomstein. “This was the first event where it was used.”
Police Operations Capt. Jeffrey Kingsley of Fort McCoy DES has been to every National Night Out event for Fort McCoy since he started working at the installation in 2011. He described the installation’s involvement in the Sparta event.
“We came to the Sparta National Night Out … where we do Easy Child ID System, which is a system that parents can bring their kids in, they can get them fingerprinted, it takes their picture, and also does a short interview and gets some information on them,” Kingsley said. “So, that way if unfortunately something happens to a child, they have something they can give to the law enforcement to help them locate them.”
Kingsley also described how the National Night Out events are helpful with community policing.
“It’s very important because it shows that Fort McCoy interacts with the community really well, and to be honest, a lot of the officers we have live in the communities themselves,” Kingsley said. “So, they may work at Fort McCoy, but they live in Sparta. And so they’re interacting with their neighbors, with their friends. It’s a really great opportunity.
“Community policing is really important,” Kingsley said. “We take it very seriously. It’s a chance we get to go out and interact with the community and that is a good thing. You build those relationships outside of the more stressful times you may interact with them. So, if I can go and talk to you outside of when I have to come and talk to you for something official, it makes it a little bit easier. It makes people more comfortable talking to us and coming to us with issues and problems that they have.”
And in all of his time supporting National Night Out, Kingsley said he’s always enjoyed it.
“We’re just really happy to be here,” he said. “We always enjoy it. We always get a great turnout with kids at both events.”
Police Lt. Matt Brigson with Fort McCoy DES was one of the officers supporting the Monroe County National Night Out in Tomah. He said it went well, and he enjoyed being a part of that event.
“I think it's very important that we get out and engage with the community that we serve, because we serve the community,” Brigson said. “Therefore, it’s very important that we connect with that community and for us to get to know them, and for them to get to know us better. That just helps us to be able to serve the community better than if we were to have no interaction at all.
Conservation Officer Chris Larson, also with Fort McCoy DES, also finds National Night Out as an opportunity to tell people more about Fort McCoy and the opportunities there.
“We’re one of the law enforcement agencies in the area, and we bring out a lot of our equipment that we utilize,” Larson said. “So the general public has a better understanding of what Fort McCoy offers. We have a lot of recreational opportunities (for) fishing and hiking that is open to the public. … A lot of people think it’s a military installation, so they’re not allowed to go out there. So, we want to make sure that people understand that they are allowed. They are able to come out to Fort McCoy. This also gives us a chance to give people a better understanding of what Fort McCoy employees do for the area.”
In addition to Fort McCoy people and equipment, each event also had dozens of not-for-profit organizations with various exhibits, information booths, and displays on subjects like nutrition, school bus safety, biking safety, storm spotting, parenting, water safety, electricity safety, seatbelt use, boating safety, all-terrain vehicle safety, poison control, mental health, and first aid.
The next National Night Event for Monroe County and Sparta are planned for August 2025.
Fort McCoy’s motto is to be the “Total Force Training Center.”
Located in the heart of the upper Midwest, Fort McCoy is the only U.S. Army installation in Wisconsin.
The installation has provided support and facilities for the field and classroom training of more than 100,000 military personnel from all services nearly every year since 1984.
Learn more about Fort McCoy online at https://home.army.mil/mccoy, on Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” and on Twitter by searching “usagmccoy.”
Also try downloading the Digital Garrison app to your smartphone and set “Fort McCoy” or another installation as your preferred base. Fort McCoy is also part of Army’s Installation Management Command where “We Are The Army’s Home.”
| Date Taken: | 08.15.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 08.15.2024 13:26 |
| Story ID: | 478707 |
| Location: | FORT MCCOY, WISCONSIN, US |
| Web Views: | 132 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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