National Night Out is Tonight!
The nation carries on the tradition of National Night Out tonight with events taking place in cities all over the country with things like live jazz, food, boxing, block parties, karate, carnivals, cookouts, and competitions. In Los Angeles alone, there are 44 events planned.
The free events were created to spark community involvement and catalyze communication between the police enforcement and community members. The mission is to bring about crime and drug prevention awareness, generate support for anticrime programs, strengthen neighborhood spirit, and ignite police-community partnerships.
The project started back in 1984 under the leadership of the National Association of Town Watch with 2.5 million participating nationwide. Since then the number of cities involved and community participation has only continued to grow with 36 million participating last year in over 15,000 communities.
Other local cities registered to participate tonight include Beverly Hills, Brentwood, Costa Mesa, Gardena, Huntington Beach, Hawthorne, Lomita, Long Beach, Manhattan Beach, Orange, Palm Springs, Santa Monica, West Hollywood, Wilmington, and West Covina. The complete list can be found HERE.
Previously in 2009: It's National Night Out, Do you Know Your LAPD Senior Lead Officer?