Celebrate Night Out on Your Block
Each year on the first Tuesday in August Seattlites hold block parties to meet their neighbors and build community action to prevent crime. Tuesday August 7th, the City of Seattle will be celebrating the 28th Annual Night Out Against Crime. Last year, 1,327 events were registered with the Seattle Police Department!
“Night Out” is a national Crime Prevention event. It is designed to heighten crime prevention awareness, increase neighborhood support in anti-crime efforts, and unite our communities. It is a great chance to learn about crime prevention, while also celebrating your community and spending time with your neighbors.
Seattle has had a long history of supporting Night Out. The program has been growing every year, with over 1,200 neighborhoods participating in 2010. This type of community participation is what makes Seattle a great place to live.
The event is a unique opportunity to bring your neighbors together, welcome new neighbors, talk about crime prevention and Block Watch efforts, and mainly just have a great time with food, music, games – whatever you want. The creativity we’ve seen of what neighborhoods come up with is amazing. Some gatherings are just a few households; others expand into large block parties.
This year the theme is “Celebrating Crime Free Neighborhoods.” If you have a neighborhood that has seen a decrease in crime, it is a time to celebrate your achievements. If you have ongoing crime problems you are working on, it is a chance to renew your focus, start a Block Watch if you haven’t already, and take a public stand against crime in your neighborhood.
Night Out Against Crime is an opportunity for individual neighborhoods to renew their commitment to the following:
- Heighten crime and drug prevention awareness
- Generate support for, and participation in, local anti-crime programs
- Strengthen neighborhood spirit and police-community partnerships
- Send a message to criminals that neighborhoods are organized and fighting back.
To participate in Night Out and to have your street closed for the event, you must officially register your Night Out event. Go to this site to do so. http://www.seattle.gov/police/nightout/default.htm Then invite your neighbors to join in this fun event.
