LCSO Message of the Week from Commander Ryan Powell: August 2, 2024

2024 Night In The Country After Action Report

Completed by Commander Ryan Powell

Date: July 24 – July 28, 2024

The Night in the Country Music Festival has been an annual music festival in Yerington, NV for 23 years. During those years, the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO) has conducted general law enforcement special event patrols and enforcement during the event. As the event has grown in size and attention, it has moved from the Lyon County Fairground Rodeo Arena, to the Lyon County Fairground event area, and the Yerington City grounds which circle the Fairgrounds. The Concert draws approximately 10,000+ people in attendance. In past years, the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office has responded to calls for fights, sexual assaults, battery, battery with deadly weapon, domestic violence, minor in consumption of alcohol, illegal drug related calls, theft and a multitude of other calls for service.

This year, LCSO was approached by the Night in the Country and Boy’s and Girl’s Club staff, requesting that we act as the main law enforcement agency due to the retirement of Yerington Police Chief. With that all of the LE duties fell under the purview of LCSO, which included planning and coordination of security and enforcement for the event. LCSO partnered with YPD and Pershing County Sheriff’s Office Mounted Unit for law enforcement personnel at event. LCSO provided communications for the event via the use of the Dispatch center located off site. LCSO dispatchers worked both the law enforcement side, as well as the fire / medical side of the event, dispatch emergency services while the event was under way.

Coordination: Lyon County Sheriff’s Office personnel worked with the following agencies for coordination of this event. Boys and Girls Club of Mason Valley, Yerington Mason Valley Fire Protection District, Yerington Police Department, Nevada Highway Patrol, Lyon County Emergency Management, Humboldt General Hospital, CSC Event Security, Lyon County Road Department, Lyon County Emergency Management, and Lyon County Information Technology Department. Additionally, Peri and Son’s Farms worked closely in providing assistance through manpower and equipment for the event.

The majority of the collaboration of this event was conducted by Boys and Girls Club staff and Night In The Country Music Festival Director Justin Aguilar. Multiple briefings were held prior to the event taking place to include an onsite meeting with all of the agencies involved.

During the planning process leading up to NITC, four areas were identified when creating the mission focus for the event. 1. Staffing Level 2. Operations plan 3. Mission focus 4. Support.

The planning portion started with creating an operation plan, which is attached to this document. This year, a more detailed and comprehensive plan was produced since LCSO was the lead law enforcement agency. The plan outlined both routine actions and more serious issues that could have occurred. The detailed plan was created so that everyone involved had clear expectations and knew what the operations plan would be.

Next, staffing levels for the event were evaluated and discussed with event coordinators and LCSO command Staff. This year’s staffing levels were about the same as compared to last year’s staff. Approximately 20 sworn deputies were utilized in nightly operations. The calls for service, event culture, and event requests were evaluated when determining staffing levels. After evaluating the needs and mission focus for the event, a plan of having three (2) roving foot patrol teams led by a supervisor patrolling the concert was implemented.

Next, a plan was implemented in the mission focus of the foot patrol teams, specifically how and where they would be utilized. A map of the concert venue was utilized and specific zones, or areas of concern were identified. Thee (4) zones were created and staff was advised of the areas. This was helpful in identifying areas that were in need of patrol, as well as sending sworn personnel to the correct location when an incident occurred. Additionally, the map was posted in the briefing room, the command post and pictures of the map were electronically sent to the deputies working for familiarization of the venue.

After that, the mission focus was discussed amongst NITC leadership and command staff. The expectations were outlined for the sworn personnel assigned to work this event so that all of them were working on the same page and expectations from NITC staff and LCSO command staff. The approach was first and foremost safety of the participants and staff working the event, followed by criminal law enforcement. With that said, sworn personnel were instructed to deal with violations in a professional manner, understanding that safety of the participants came first.

Lastly, The support element consisted of working with Boys and Girls Club staff to provide plentiful hydration to staff involved, food and snack resources for staff, and providing shade structures for use during the event.

Each year this event is assigned to an Incident Commander who plans and utilizes available resources to effectively conduct event operations. Typically that role has been filled by one person. This year we assigned an IC for the duration of the event, 24-hours per day. The addition of having an IC for the duration of the event seemed to work out very well, as it allowed a day to night and night to day shift brief. Any problems or issues that were identified by the off-going shift were passed on to the oncoming shift. Additionally, the IC was able to act as a known point of contact to all of the other agencies involved thereby helping with communication.

NITC provided a map, which allowed us to create zones of responsibility and provided for quicker dispatching of incident within the venue. The zones were labeled A, B, C, and D, which did cause a little confusion as some of the camp sites were also labeled with a B, see attached maps. Overall the zones seemed to work well in identifying areas within the concert venue and sending deputies to calls for service. Dispatch had the map at their console as well and they were able to get a feel for where an incident was prior to dispatching a deputy.

LE radio communications were conducted on SO1 and Fire/Medical was on the main fire channel. Overall, LE radio communications worked well, and there are no issues to report. Fire communications were congested as that is the same channel that the rest of the fire districts use. This will be evaluated by the NITC, LE and Fire staff involved and we will determine if another channel is needed.

Shift Briefings were utilized prior to each day’s events and the plan, process and mission focus were explained to all of the staff involved, including dispatchers and county emergency management. This group approach assisted in evaluating what worked, and what did not work each day and offering a platform to address this. For example, how we dispatched calls for service changed based upon the needs of the staff on scene. Initially, all calls for service were routed through the on-duty IC. But that became counter-productive so we had dispatch just advise of the call for service, and the closest team self-dispatched to the call.

By in large the plan was followed and the process went well keeping the event safe and secure.

There were no major incidents, three arrests and some citations written by Sheriff’s Office personnel in relation to the concert, not the campgrounds. No workplace injuries were reported during the event.

Communication went great as well, the team’s radio traffic was clear and concise and only one radio number per team was used to eliminate confusion of who was talking.

Moving LCSO dispatchers off site seemed to work well and did not cause any major issues.

Overall the event went very well, no major incidents took place in order to truly test the process, but contingency plans were in place.

The Sheriff’s Office identified the need for specific training on large scale, mass-casualty incidents. This training is already in the works through Lyon County Emergency Management and will greatly enhance our operational ability.

This being the first year at the new location of NITC caused some hiccups with patrons and staff getting used to the new layout, however by the last day most were familiar with the layout. Changes to law enforcement placement will be addressed in meetings with NITC.