Gregg County, TX Joins Trail Ride & Mass Gathering Crackdown
A HUGE topic over the last few weeks continues to be the crackdown by East Texas counties on mass gatherings after 5 people were shot at a trail ride in Smith County. Smith County has taken action with its controversial plans to enforce mass gathering permits and now a neighboring county will be following suit.
The Gregg County sheriff has announced a process and protocol for mass gatherings in Gregg County.
According to a report from KLTV, the Gregg County commissioners court held a regular meeting Monday morning and acknowledged Sheriff Maxey Cerliano’s efforts on taking the lead on handling mass gathering applications. Sheriff Cerliano added that upon researching the state's current statues on Mass Gatherings, he felt it was appopriate for Gregg County to start a mass gathering permit process in the county.
We’ve had a couple of events here that have had a large group of people that had gathered, and there was little information on it before the gathering took place, As you well know, there’s been gatherings in counties adjacent to Gregg County. So, upon researching the [state law] statute, we found that it was appropriate for Gregg County to have a mass gathering permit process.” - Gregg County Sheriff Maxey Cerliano via KLTV
Gregg County Plans To Make The Application Process Available Online
Cerliano said the county’s technology department is working on a way for applications to be downloaded and submitted on the county website and there will be no fee to apply. While there is growing consensus on the need to get these events under control, one Gregg County commissioner objected to the change citing lack of information but for now the plan to start enforcing mass gatherings in Gregg County will move forward.