First responders on the ready at the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo
FORT WORTH- The livestock is the most apparent thing that works hard at the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo. Also in the line of sight are the men and women of the Fort Worth Police Department's Mounted Patrol.
"We're up-- elevated above everybody else," James Oakley said. "So if there's lost children---there's a lot of kids out here--- so if they get lost, we can see into the crowds above stuff like that."
Oakley is a member of the mounted patrol assigned to serve and protect the one million visitors coming to the stock show and rodeo each year. Fights, escorting VIPs, as a department veteran, Oakley has a seasoned response because he's had this assignment for years.
"We can do everything a normal officer can do and more," he said.
The mounted patrol sits atop a magnet for community engagement: horses.
"They get to see us. They get to see our horses," Oakley said. "We'll allow them to pet our horses. It gives them a little more positive outlook of the police department---other than seeing us out making arrests and stuff like that."
Other officers still patrol the grounds to provide another layer of security.
Engine 80 from the Fort Worth Fire Department stands by for medical emergencies and fires. Firefighters and paramedics are on the ground all day and all night. Proximity allows immediate response.
"We run all sorts of calls," Taylor Clark said. Any sort of fire that could be on the grounds."
Clark is an engineer on Engine 80. He said responding to emergencies from other places outside the grounds could take away precious seconds needed when 911 gets called.
"There's so many gates you have to get through. Our response time is cut down dramatically by being right here," he said.
Emergency responders don't even have to roll out the big fire truck. They can reach specific incidents by UTV.
Time on the stadium property is also an opportunity to connect to the community where they work when the worst is not happening.
"You get to see a lot of people, and it's fun to kinda be an ambassador for not only the Fire department but for the City of Fort Worth," he said.
