National Night Out promotes police-community partnerships
Communities across Texas fired up their grills and brought out the kids to meet their neighborhood police and other first responders Tuesday, Oct. 4 for National Night Out. Established in 1984, the event promotes police-community partnerships. Although the rest of the country recognizes National Night Out in August, Texas’ summer heat has the 28th state opting to celebrate in fall.
City and county law enforcement and fire departments turned up at numerous neighborhood block parties around Hutto and Taylor. Smaller cities like Thrall and Granger held events at their city parks.
Police departments fully support the purpose behind the parties.
“You get to meet first responders in a nonemergency setting and discuss things that are going on in your neighborhood and put a face to the names of your officers,” said Commander Joseph Branson of the Taylor Police Department. “We believe it just creates a really good relationship between our officers and our residents in Taylor.”
Sergeant Josh Bellenir and officer Randy Wheeler of Hutto Police Department took a break from filling gift bags for block parties to talk about how the event helps the community.
“The reason we do this is it gives us a chance to actually get out and meet our community, meet our citizens, let them know that we’re here not only for their worst times but we can also be here for the good times,” Wheeler said.
“We want them to see us out in public and feel like they can approach us, and we’ll actually interact with them. We want them to know we’re always here for them for whatever they might need, even things like changing a flat tire or getting locked out of their houses.” The parties also serve the purpose of neighbors meeting neighbors. HuttoParke HOA board member Jenny Niemczyk said that getting to know her neighbors at the block party means “we’ll be able to look out for each other and rally together as opposed to knocking each other down.
We’re all the same and we can count on each other.” Neighborhoods where people know each other and are united as a community are safer neighborhoods for everyone. “In the old days everybody watched out for their neighbors, and these type of events help people get to know each other,” said Thrall Police Chief Whitney Whitworth. “If I go on a wellness check for someone and I ask the neighbors if they’ve seen the person out, or if any unusual cars were around, I don’t want them to say they don’t know.”
