Often the faces that were sworn to “protect and serve” their communities are unknown to the individuals within that community. As a result, cities and towns across the nation participate in National Night Out.
The relationship between law enforcement and their communities are as diverse as the people who live there. If you know your community would not benefit from this event, feel free to click away and check out our other blogs posts and resources.
National Night Out is an annual campaign that works to strengthen police and community relationships. One the first Tuesday in August (with alternate dates in Texas and Florida to avoid hot weather), neighborhoods host block parties, festivals, parades, cookouts, and other community events with safety demonstrations, seminars, youth events, and exhibits created by officers.
The idea was introduced in 1984 by a man named Matt Peskin. He was a part of the National Association of Town Watch (NATW) that provided community resources and organized watch groups. Still, Perskin thought the community needed more. With the help of law enforcement agencies, neighborhood watch groups, and other organizations and volunteers across the nation, NATW created the first National Night Out in August of 1984. That first event had 2.5 million neighbors across 23 states. Today, that number has stretched to 38 million participants across all 50 states.
This year, a rape crisis center called Womanspace is gearing up for yet another National Night Out. Womanspace, based in Mercer County, New Jersey, has been participating in National Night Out since the late 1990s. According to Susan Adams, Volunteer and Community Outreach Coordinator for Womanspace, each year they have been participating in their community outreach.
Though the idea of National Night Out started as a way for police officers to connect to their community, now it serves as a platform for organizations to share their resources with their neighbors.
Even though Womanspace has been working with their police department through their Domestic Violence Response Team and Sexual Assault Support Services Team, Adams said their relationship is still a work in progress. Still, Adams encourages other rape crisis centers and organizations to get involved with National Night Out, as long as everyone is comfortable doing so, to share their center’s resources.
“People need to know that there is help and resources right there in their own community,” Adams said. “What better way than at a fun event where hundreds of people come together for a Night Out.”
Before becoming the Training & TA Director at the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape (PCAR) Annie Gebhardt worked in the Violence Intervention and Prevention Department at the YWCA in Harrisburg, PA. During her first National Night Out, Gebhardt and her team worked with a committee made up of local business, banks, health centers, faith communities, and other organizations to plan the event.
“Mostly it was just a really big cookout, with a whole bunch of donated food and animal balloons for people in the community,” Gebhardt said. “It was also like a health fair with different local service providers setting up tables and having giveaways, and sharing their brochures and other information.”
The connection between law enforcement and the community it polices is complicated, Gebhardt said, and depends on what local law enforcement is doing or not doing the other 364 days of the year. At times, rape crisis centers and law enforcement are lumped together because of their work with survivors and the amount of funding rape crisis centers receive from the criminal justice system. However, as we are in the midst of the #MeToo movement and broadening the conversation surrounding sexual violence the goals of each organization have sometimes shifted away from one another.
“Rape crisis centers are also about social transformation, change, and justice. That is not necessarily the mission of law enforcement or the impact of law enforcement,” Gebhardt said. “Advocates exist in order to advocate for survivors who are navigating as often hostile law enforcement and criminal justice system.”
National Night Out could be that stepping stone to rebuilding the tie between rape crisis centers and local law enforcement officers, and could help develop a greater understanding of each other while also helping their neighborhood.
Gebhardt says that being involved with the event taught her that it takes a community to help a community.
“All of us are a part of the community safety, and kind of taking that and building that,” she said. “Just having those connections with so many other neighbors and organizations to feel like my safety is connected to your safety,’ and all of us have a role that we can play in that. I feel that is a broader message that is great and so much of what we’re going for with our prevention messaging.”
For more information on National Night Out and how you can get involved visit natw.org