6:00: Morning News

West Virginia Public Safety Expo kicks off in Capital City

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Vision is what the secretary of the West Virginia Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety says first responders need.

“We need to think outside the box and think of different ways to attack our problems that we’re having, not only in the United States, but in West Virginia,” Secretary Jeff Sandy said Wednesday as he helped open the 10th Annual West Virginia Public Safety Expo.

The Expo runs through Saturday at the Charleston Civic Center.

Participating in instructional and training courses are law enforcement officers, firefighters, emergency medical technicians, emergency 911 dispatchers and other first responders from inside and outside of West Virginia.

“Hopefully, they’ll take away something from here that will keep them safe or help keep some citizen safe,” said Terry Sayre, Yeager Airport director and vice chair of the West Virginia Public Safety Expo Executive Committee.

He’s been part of the Expo for each of its past ten years.

“In the beginning, I think, the first year we had about 150 people. Since then, we’ve had 500 or 600 people a year attend this and we’ve reached out to a lot more people across the country.”

During his nearly 40 years in law enforcement and criminal investigation, Sandy, a former Wood County sheriff, said he found all training sessions, like the Expo, beneficial.

“Even if you make contact with an individual from another part of the state or another part of the world and you make that contact, then you can reach out to them to kick an idea off them,” Sandy said.

“You go to work. You do the same thing every day and I hope that they will say, ‘Hey, could I do this a different way, in a better way, a way that’s more effective, a way that’s better to help the citizens of our state?”

For more on the West Virginia Public Safety Expo, CLICK HERE.





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