Lyon County Sheriff’s Message of the Week on August 1, 2025

This year’s Night in the Country music festival concluded with zero major incidents to report. The primary objective of the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office, and our partners, is to ensure the safety of all who attend the event. This objective requires an extreme effort from all who are involved in the planning and operation. Commander Powell, who oversees the event, has provided an after-action report, which is included in this message.

2025 Night In The Country After Action Report

Completed by Commander Ryan Powell

Date: July 23 – July 27, 2025

Event Overview:

Background:

The Night in the Country Music Festival has been an annual music festival in Yerington, NV, for 24 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, and battery with deadly weapon, domestic violence, minor in consumption of alcohol, illegal drug related calls, theft and a multitude of other calls for service.

Mission:

This year, LCSO was again approached by the Night in the Country and Boy’s and Girl’s Club staff, requesting that we again act as the main law enforcement agency. 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 Pershing County Sheriff’s Office (Horse Patrol Units) 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, dispatching emergency services while the event was underway.

Phase 1 – Pre-event Planning:

The planning portion started with creating an operations plan. This year, a more detailed and comprehensive plan was produced, utilizing lessons learned from the 2024 event. 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. The Operations plan was reviewed and even updated prior to the event starting. The operations plan was reviewed and approved by Sheriff Brad Pope and then provided to Lyon County Emergency Management, where a consolidated emergency services operations plan was created.

Prior to the start of this year’s event, Boys and Girls Club Staff hosted several planning meetings and collaborated with all of the different agencies and entities involved in the concert planning. During those meetings, areas of responsibility were identified and assignments of tasks were provided to each group involved in the event. The main areas of focus for Law Enforcement operations were the teams, mission focus, and collaboration with other entities/agencies involved.

The chain of command for the event was as follows:

1. Planning, liaison, inter-agency coordination: Commander Ryan Powell

2. Incident Command: This was shared by multiple supervisors assigned to work this event. IC was established on Wednesday, July 23, and terminated on Sunday, July 27.

3. Team Leaders: Lt. Bret Willey (Foot Patrol), Sgt. Mark Kosak (Foot Patrol), Sgt. Erik Kusmerz (Foot Patrol), Sgt. Bill McDaniel (Drone Team), Lt. T Joyner (Over watch), and Lt. John Vandiver (Overnight IC / Team Leader). Commander Abel Ortiz was assigned as the day shift incident commander, and I acted as the swing shift incident commander.

4. Deputies assigned to work the event

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, Sierra Electronics, Music Artist Management Team and Security, Lyon County Buildings and Grounds Department, Lyon County Emergency Management, and Lyon County Information Technology Department. Additionally, Peri and Son’s Farms worked closely to provide 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, including an on-site meeting with all of the agencies involved, the day prior to the concert kicking off.

Phase 2 – During the event:

The operations plan was implemented and utilized during the four days of the music festival. Daily Briefings were conducted with the Law Enforcement Staff assigned to work the event. Weather reports were provided, assignments were given, and a briefing of the previous day’s activities were given. Areas to focus on, concerns, and lessons learned from the previous day were discussed during the briefing. Three shifts Law Enforcement shifts were assigned for the event, to include Day shift, Swing Shift, and Overnight Shift. The total Law number of Law Enforcement Personnel assigned to the event per day were as follows:

Wednesday – 8

Thursday – 35

Friday – 36, plus 7 horse patrol units from Pershing County Sheriff’s Office

Saturday – 33, plus 7 horse patrol units

During the course of the event, no major issues took place. Although calls for service increased from last year, there were no major calls or investigations that took place during the event. No staff injuries were reported, and only minor use of force was used during arrests. No law enforcement personnel used personal defense weapons (taser, pepper spray, asp baton, firearms).

Of note, calls involving grossly intoxicated individuals were elevated this year. The crowd in attendance seemed to be younger, and incidents involving underage drinking were higher this year than last year. Additionally, more fights were reported this year than last year and arrests were up as well. See the attached breakdown of calls, arrests, and cites issued for further details.

Sgt. McDaniel utilized the LCSO unmanned aerial vehicle for surveillance. This proved to be a valuable tool to law enforcement as we could quickly get eyes on a suspect issues or large crowds and determine what was taking place from the safety of an elevated position, even at night with the infrared capabilities. Sgt. McDaniel used the new computer screen to monitor the live video from the UAV and that was a tremendous upgrade from past events. He also sent out a live link to watch the video remotely (on a cell phone or tablet), and that was a great tool to have as well.

Lyon County Emergency Management brought a large Mass Casualty Incident (MCI) kit event for the first time. This large backpack consisted of 12 smaller first aid kits built for handling multiple gunshot victims. A similar kit was also utilized from the Mason Valley Fire Department. The kit was not needed, but it was a huge safety upgrade for our staff and the concert participants.

Lyon County Emergency Management also utilized the LCSO Command Bus for their incident command post. This newly renovated vehicle had two fully functional work stations, multiple radios to monitor all radio traffic for the event (SAR, Fire, Law), and well as other forms and supplies that could have been needed in the event. Emergency Management also had emergency managers from Storey County and North Lyon Fire shadow them during the event and see how the hour-to-hour activities were handled.

Patrol operations consisted of day shift, swing shift (concert), and overnight shift. These three shifts were staffed 24 hours per day, and for the most part were busy and utilized at multiple times during the day and night. Incident command was terminated on Sunday, July 27, as the campers were packing up and leaving town.

Post Event Debrief:

After the conclusion of the event, LCSO Command Staff met on July 29, 2025, and discussed this year’s concert. We discussed things that went well, things that need improvement, and came up with areas to improve next year’s operations plan.

Identified Issues:

(REMOVED FOR OPERATIONAL SAFETY) I (Sheriff Pope) removed this portion. I can assure the public they are easily correctable and minimal; however, for officer and event safety, they will not be released to the public.

What Went Well?

There were no major incidents, no workplace injuries were reported during the event, and by and large, the operation was safe and successful.

Several of the deputies were very involved with calls for service and self-initiated activities. Citations and arrests were up this year.

Moving the command post from the hospital area to backstage was a good improvement. Having the LCSO Command Bus on scene to write reports and run a major incident was also a big upgrade from last year.

Collaboration between Boys and Girls Club and the Sheriff’s Office was very smooth and worked out great. There was event-wide Wi-Fi for all public safety members, and that helped communication. Phone calls and text messages were able to be utilized for staff assignments and communication, and were a huge improvement over last year, when there was no ability to communicate via phone or text.

Statistics:

Arrests:

5 (4 M, 1 F)

Criminal Reports:

11 (9 M, 2 F)

Citations:

Minor In Consumption of Alcohol: 16

Contributing to Delinquency of Minor: 3

Providing False ID for Purchase of Alcohol: 2

Traffic Stops:

6 (5 Citations)

Criminal Calls for Service:

Battery (4)

Burglary in Progress (1)

Domestic Battery (6)

Destruction of Property (3)

Possession of False Identification (2)

Fight (13)

Harassment (1)

Larceny (4)

Minor in Consumption of Alcohol (17)

Urinating in Public (1)

Unwanted Subject (1)

Warrant Service (1)

Non-Criminal Calls for Service:

Accident Non-Injury (1)

Accident Injury (1)

Assist Other Agency (12)

Follow Up (2)

Keep the Peace (1)

Missing Person (1)

Public Service (7)

Subject Stop (2)

Suspicious Vehicle (1)

Welfare Check (2)

Medical Calls:

41 Total:

13 intoxicated subjects, 12 injuries, 16 unknown

The Lyon County Sheriff’s Office looks forward to a continued partnership with the Boys and Girls Club and is honored to have been able to provide law enforcement services to this year’s event.

Respectfully,

Sheriff Brad Pope