Posted July 26th, 2016
By Kris Powers
National Night Out (NNO) is a community-building campaign that promotes police-community relationships and strives to build neighborhood fellowship. National Night Out might be needed more than ever this year in light of recent events.
National Night Out is typically an evening of events and activities designed to encourage neighbors to get to know one another, to build partnerships between the police and community members and to take a stand against crime by educating everyone on crime prevention. The end goal is to make our neighborhoods safer, better places to live, as well as to foster relationships between the police and community. These relationships are important to police departments as well as to the communities they serve.
“It’s all about community and policing partnerships. Right now, it’s extremely important that we have these relationships,” Ben Klug, president of the Indian Creek Master Association in Jupiter, Florida, recently said. Klug is organizing the National Night Out event for the Jupiter Police Department.
“At National Night Out, residents see officers in a different light, outside of the functions of traditional law enforcement,” Delray Beach Assistant Chief Javarao Sims. “It helps humanize the police department, not to mention that it is a lot of fun!”
Police Chief Keith Morton of Fountain Inn, South Carolina, recently commented, "It's really easy to develop a negative connotation if the only time the public ever sees them [the police] is after they've done something wrong. We try to create opportunities where we can have positive interaction. National Night Out is a great forum to do that."
Citizens, law enforcement agencies, community groups, military personnel, local businesses, youth organizations and local state and federal officials from throughout the U.S. and Canada celebrate National Night Out on the first Tuesday of each August. This year’s events are scheduled for August 2nd in many cities (although some cities celebrate the event in October).
Events like National Night Out are essential now more than ever. In addition to helping develop important relationships between police and the community, NNO offers the opportunity for organizations to spread the word about free programs available to the public. These include things like a Citizen's Police Academy, neighborhood watch programs, summer camps for "at risk" children, senior programs and more.
Join forces with thousands of other communities across the country in promoting cooperative, police-community crime prevention efforts. Be on the lookout for National Night Out activities in your area!
