DOVER (WJER) - Tuscarawas County’s sheriff has some advice for any parents heading out to the fair with young kids this week. 

Orvis Campbell says small children can routinely slip away and become separated from their parents on a busy night. He suggests taking a picture of your kid that day with the clothing they’ll have on at the fair, so you can get that to the deputies at the fair to share around in the event they wander off.

“Because parents are so frantic, they can’t remember what color clothing their child’s wearing or they tell us the wrong color and that’s all we’re looking for in a big crowd, so take a picture,” he says.

And he says for a little older kids, they should hang out in pairs or smaller groups.

“There are very few crimes that happen where you have two children abducted or two children assaulted. They want to single out people that are easy victims so the buddy system, as old as it is, it really does work,” he says.
Campbell says they want people to come to the fair and know it’s safe.

“We invest a lot of our time and money and efforts into it. There’s a lot of security that you see, and then there’s also plain-clothed security that you don’t see. We work things very aggressively there. We look for narcotics there. We look for sex offenders there. We make sure we stay on top of things, and the fair board works very closely with us on this,” he says.

Campbell also suggests putting the parents’ names and phone numbers on a piece of paper in the child’s pocket, and the deputies will ask for that if they find a lost child. 

WJER RADIO