National Night Out

Excerpts
National Night Out, the festival police departments will sponsor across South Jersey on Tuesday, could hold more significance this year in the wake of the national debate over responsible policing and public safety.

National Night Out started as a community outreach program in Philadelphia in 1984. Since then, it has grown to more than 16,000 communities in every state.

The carnival-style events give officers a chance to strike up relationships with the public so people will feel more comfortable calling police if they are the victim of a crime or suspect a crime has occurred.

Such networking is increasingly important at a time when the national dialogue has been about improving the safety of interactions between police and the public after controversial shootings by police, protests of police and ambush-style attacks on police in the past year. Shootings by police in Louisiana and Minnesota led to public protests across the country. This was followed by deadly ambush-style attacks on officers in Dallas and Louisiana.

“You get kids to see that police are regular people, too. It has an extraordinary value,” said Matt Peskin, spokesman for the nonprofit National Night Out.

 MULLICA TOWNSHIP: 6-9 p.m. at the Recreation Complex. Concert by the Motts Creek Pickers, free hot dogs and drinks, police and K-9 demo, bounce houses, face painting, helicopters and police cars, bomb squad, SWAT team, go-kart rides for ages 4 and older.

Entire article athttp://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/crime/police/national-night-out-puts-personal-face-on-policing/article_7d2db9e2-55cb-11e6-840f-dfc0ea58aee2.html