Arkansas State Fair gets first metal detectors

The Arkansas State Fair has increased security for its 11-day run next month in response to a surge of violent crime in Little Rock.

Ralph Shoptaw, the event’s president and general manager, said the fair has purchased walk-through metal detectors for the first time in its 78-year history to keep weapons off the grounds.

Weapons of any kind, including concealed carry firearms, have long been banned from the fairgrounds.

Private security guards used hand-held metal detectors, also known as wands, to search for weapons in the past.

“With the rise in homicides, we just felt like it was something that we needed to be proactive on and take a little bit of extra precaution,” Shoptaw said.

“Because we just don’t want anything ever to happen. A fairground is a place to have fun and enjoy, and we don’t want anything to happen to make people feel unsafe.”

The fair purchased four walk-through metal detectors for about $1,000 total through a federal surplus equipment program.

Two additional metal detectors will be rented for the 11-day fair at a total cost of $500.

Shoptaw said the fair, which begins Oct. 12, has installed additional lighting in parking lots surrounding the fairgrounds, as well. And the roughly 50 private security guards hired to work the event this year will conduct “roving patrols” in those areas.

The guards will work alongside Little Rock police, Arkansas State Police and the Pulaski County sheriff’s office, agencies that patrol the fair each year.

“With the crime that we’ve had this year, we just think we need to step it up a little,” Shoptaw said.