National Night Out

Last night, August 5th, was the National Night Out. National Night Out was originally established in some communities as Take back The Night. Its roots are in the area of neighborhood development and public safety.

In the beginning, neighborhood residents, instead of staying their homes and and letting the criminals run loose in the streets, were asked to come out of their homes, meet their neighbors, meet the police and firefighters serving their neighborhood, and maybe meet an elected official or two as well. If the criminal element in the community saw the activity created by this event, they woud, as the theory goes, repress their criminal activities for the evening.

In large part, it prodcued that very result.

National Take Back The Night morphed into National Night Out. National Night Out is practices across the country. Last night in Eden Prairie we had over 55 different neighborhood groups sponsor National Night Out events in their neighborhoods.

One of the things that I really like about National night Out is that it is truly a neighborhood grass-roots activity. The neighborhood decides if it will do a party and how the party will be done. If the neighborhood registers the party with the City, then the City will support the neighborhood’s efforts by sending out a Police squad car or a fire truck or maybe event McGruff The Crime Dog.

We had a wonderful National Night Out event last night. We restructured our regularly scheduled City Council meeting so that Councilmembers could attend the events around town. Hats of to them and to the many police and firefighters that participated in the events. I would like to give special recognition to Officer Rob Geis and Fire Department Administrative Assistant Kimberly Cummings for their work to coordinate the City’s support of the events last night. Well done!

Here are some photos from the events I attended last night:

National Night Out at Twilight Court