What were you doing last night?
Yesterday was National Night Out.
What is National Night Out?
It’s America’s Night Out Against Crime!
The “27th Annual National Night Out” (NNO), a unique crime/drug prevention event sponsored by the National Association of Town Watch (NATW), was held yesterday, August 3, 2010.
2009’s National Night Out campaign involved citizens, law enforcement agencies, civic groups, businesses, neighborhood organizations and local officials from over 15,000 communities from all 50 states, U.S. territories, Canadian cities and military bases worldwide. In all, over 36 million people participated in National Night Out 2009.
NATIONAL NIGHT OUT is designed to:
- Heighten crime and drug prevention awareness;
- Generate support for, and participation in, local anti-crime programs;
- Strengthen neighborhood spirit and police-community partnerships; and
- Send a message to criminals letting them know that neighborhoods are organized and fighting back.
Here is what you missed:
- The Lafayette Rotary Club was at Plaza Park handing out free DNA kits for parents to collect needed materials to help identify their children.
- The Chamber was there and invited Nibbler’s Restaurant to hand out FREE food and Cover2Cover, a local band, entertained the attendees.
- The Lafayette Police Department was there and you could have met the Chief, our new Sergeant and many of our sworn and non-sworn officers. Your Mayor, members of the Crime Commission and a City Council member were there to meet and greet the public. McGruff the crime dog was there too.
My point is the community had a chance to meet their police department and their neighbors. The event was not well attended, and we missed a golden opportunity to get to know each other a little better and to share your concerns about your city.
When the Art & Wine Festival comes around, please take a few minutes and get to know many of the people that work behind the scenes to make Lafayette such a desirable place to work and live. Our Police will be present on foot and would enjoy meeting the people they serve. Our city staff and City Council will be on hand to answer questions. Over 30 non-profit organizations will be on hand to share their story. And if you see me schlepping stuff around the event, please say hey! It will give me an excuse to stop for a couple of minutes.
