A volunteer group of neighbors who live near the Minnesota State Fair have banded together, set on helping deter crime after two previous fairs where they said it felt like it was on the rise.

"I'm a neighbor," read the bright green neon shirts that group members wear as they patrol the sidewalks of the Como Park neighborhood, just east of the fair's main gates. The members aim is to help the lost or ailing, defuse tension caused by parking disputes and other crowd-driven confusion, and keep one another better in the loop about neighborhood safety.

The Neighborhood State Fair Safety Initiative, comprising nearly 200 residents, formed shortly after last year's fair, which saw a shooting just outside the front gate. "I think it's a good idea to have a more visible presence in the neighborhood," said Paul Schmitz, who lives near the front gates. He signed up for the group's email updates.

With the fair in full swing this past week, traffic buzzed outside its perimeter. Throngs of fairgoers walked to the front gate on Snelling Avenue while neighbors directed cars to park on their lawns. Traffic has surged with State Fair attendance this year, back up after the pandemic forced a year off in 2020 and a scaled-back affair last year.

So far this year, attendance has risen back close to 2019 levels. Joshua Lego, a St. Paul Police Department senior commander who's in close communication with the neighbor group, said that so far this year there have been fewer incidents of disorderly conduct outside the fairgrounds. The biggest test is likely to come this weekend, as the fair approaches its end and crowds traditionally swell to their largest.

Concerns over violence started after three people were shot and one was run over outside the front gates in 2019. Leading up to that incident, neighbors said, a crowd rushed the closed gates; when they couldn't get in, according to neighbors, some started running through yards, breaking planters and other items.

Concerns grew in 2021, when a gunshot rang out in the normally quiet neighborhood. No one was injured in that incident. Jennifer Victor-Larsen, who lives nearby, stressed that most of the unsavory activity just outside the fairgrounds isn't violent in nature.

But a lot of it is annoying: There are the urinators, who think no one is watching. There's the occasional drunk, looking for a car to sleep in. One neighbor claims they once caught a person pooping in their yard. The culprit was given a plastic bag and told to clean up after himself, Victor-Larsen said.

The group formed by Victor-Larsen and fellow neighbors Cindy Mitsch and Kate McCreight hopes to keep the neighborhood better connected, to intervene in situations before they turn violent, and to help fairgoers who are lost or in need of medical help.

"When people are in situations that are stressful like finding parking and they've been driving around for an hour, people are upset," Victor-Larsen said. "We are there just to ask 'How can we help?' Maybe we know somebody down the block that can squeeze them in. Those are some of the things we are doing to bring the tension down."

At the end of each fair day, the safety group meets with a law enforcement officer who relays the day's police calls. Then the group puts out an email to residents reviewing the police calls, along with odd observations by neighbors — such as empty parked cars left running — and a review of whom to call for parking violations.

So far, Lego said it appears the group's work has deterred some altercations from escalating.

"It seems really peaceful. There's been fewer incidents of disorderly conduct," Lego said. "There'll be 120,000 people and with more people there could be more problems, but we haven't seen that come to pass yet."

The neighborhood safety group also works in partnership with community ambassadors employed by the city of St. Paul to deescalate situations before violence starts.

On Monday, the group helped out a young woman who was harassed by her friends while working at the fairgrounds, said Kelly Brown, who works as a community ambassador.

"We're trying to provide them a safe space and to be the go-between, between us and the officers," Brown said. "We'll go there and we'll defuse the situation and be a presence so [police] don't have to do anything."

Alex Chhith is a general assignment reporter for the Star Tribune.

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