A Cooler Night Out

For those who have long complained that the first Tuesday of each August is to hot and humid to host a National Night Out event, your concerns have been answered. While not developed as an alternative to the annual NNO event, the new Celebrate Safe Communities, kicking off on October 2 - 4, 2008, does offer another crime prevention event venue for communities who wish to avoid the August heat. Other benefits of the program are the cost factor, or lack there of. Unlike the annual National Night Out event where participating communities must purchase everything and anything that has the NNO brand name or logo on it from the non-profit who runs the event, the Celebrate Safe Communities project does not charge for such items. Developed in partnership with the National Sheriffs' Association and the National Crime Prevention Council with funding by the U.S. DOJ's Bureau of Justice Assistance, participating communities are not held to one vendor.

For communities who want to create event items such as large banners, t-shirts, etc., the Celebrate Safe Communities project allows communities to print their own items. Using local vendors versus just one source avoids a monopoly situation in which the only winner is the one who controls the monopoly which is not in the best interest of your agency or community.

For communities upset after recently learning that the National Night Out founder receives an annual taxpayer funded compensation package in excess of $300,000 a year and the NNO's board of directors are all friends and family members, this is an opportunity to create their own personalized event under the CSC banner. Not to get off track but it should be noted that the NNO program no longer receives federal funding and the founder has restructured his board; however he has not revealed who the new board members are. From my own personal point of view, for those who have concerns about the NNO event, the CSC may be an event to look at implementing as it's run by two long standing professional organizations: the NSA and NCPC with oversight from the U.S. DOJ's, Bureau of Justice Assistance, a very credible federal agency.

Program Benefits and Freebies!

While it's not to late to host a Celebrate Safe Communities event on October 2 - 4, 2008, unfortunately the deadline passed on September 5th to receive some free items from the program. However it's never to early to start planning for next years event. Free program items include:

• 1,000 Celebrate Safe Communities stickers
• a DVD of Radio and TV PSAs
• 500 Neighborhood Watch Needs You Booklets
• 200 children's comic books
• a presentation on Lock Safety
• other helpful tools.

While it may be too late to order the above free items, for those who wish to implement a CSC program this year, the CSC web site listed below offers a host of free logo templates you can download and print for free or pay to have printed at a local print, sign or banner store. Another especially nice feature of the program is the ability to register and list your event, for free, on the Celebrate Safe Communities program web site to help attract citizens to your events.

The Bottom Line Goal

One of the keys to engaging your community in crime prevention and crime solving is creating the sense of belonging and partnership with your citizens. Remember that aged old saying from Sir Robert Peel, the founder of modern policing, "The people are the police and the police are the people"? As corny as it may sound, truer words have rarely been spoken. For sworn members of law enforcement who are reading this article, I'm sure at some point in your career while you were off duty you had the occasion of calling 911 to report a crime in progress. If you didn't identify yourself as an officer when calling in, how did you feel your information was treated? Was it, "Thanks, we'll take it from here", click, leaving you to wonder if anyone was really going to respond to your information? Or, did you feel as if the 911 operator was working with you as a partner to help get all the important information needed so units responding could take swift action regarding your call and catch the bad guys? If you've ever experienced the first example of, "Thanks, now go away and let the officers handle this", then you might have a small window into what some citizens may be feeling when they look to your police agency for help, which is not what you want.

Engaging the citizens of your community one-on-one at events like Celebrate Safe Communities can open the door and dialogue to hear first hand their concerns and who knows, may be make a few allies in the process so in the future you can truly celebrate a safer community, your community.