The sound of dance music and the smell of charcoal permeated the atmosphere Tuesday as the Dallas Police Department (DPD) hosted National Night Out in an effort to bridge the gap between the department and the community it serves.
Four-year-old Nova Greene was drawing stars behind DPD headquarters on South Botham Jean Boulevard as kids took pictures with police officers, greeted costumed characters, and pet puppies up for adoption from Dallas Animal Services.
Mayor Eric Johnson was at the event and promised that Dallas would soon be the safest major city in the United States.
“And how we’re going to do that is working together,” Johnson said, holding a football with the words “National Night Out” written on it.
“You can’t be successful in football without having a great team. And here in Dallas, we’ve got an amazing team when it comes to public safety…We can’t do it without our law enforcement and our public safety professionals in the Dallas Fire-Rescue. We have to all do our part to make this city safe,” he stated.
Police Chief Eddie Garcia reiterated how National Night Out was important in bringing the police and community together.
“Having the community out here, this is a partnership,” Garcia said. “The only reason we’re having success here … is because of the support that we get from our community.”
Garcia said this is regardless of racial, economic, or language barriers.
“It’s our communities that plead to us for more presence,” Garcia said. “And it starts here with all of this. It’s fantastic to see everybody here, but it all starts with support.”
DPD Officer Nathan Martinez told The Dallas Express that National Night Out was useful for recruiting kids to the DPD Police Explorers program.
“We talked to about five or six so far,” he said, explaining that the program teaches kids leadership skills and how to interact with police.
“If something happens and they want to know why a police officer did something, we can tell them,” said Martinez.
Lt. Jonathan Blanchard was letting people in and out of the back of DPD headquarters and told The Dallas Express that having an event like this is important to the community and police.
“There’s a large portion of the community that do appreciate these kinds of events,” Blanchard said. “When something bad happens, they do have a relationship with the police.”
National Night Out is a nationwide initiative that occurs in most places on the first Tuesday of August. Because of the weather, Texas holds its National Night Out on the first Tuesday of October.
Although crime rates in Dallas have fallen in certain categories over recent months, overall crime has been increasing year over year. See how your neighborhood stacks up on The Dallas Express Crime Boss module.
