Photo Story: Fort McCoy supports Sparta, Monroe County National Night Out 2024 events, Part 1

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.

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.”