National Night Out: Building

Police and Community

Partnerships To Prevent Crime

On a Boston street corner where firebrands and revolutionaries 

gathered more than two centuries ago, Chris Hayes and his little

band of two stood on an August night in 1985, ready to shake

things up again.

The occasion was National

Night Out (NNO). A young

man in Philadelphia named

Matt Peskin recently had

launched this new crime

prevention program as a way

for people to begin taking

back their neighborhoods by

gathering in the streets one

summer night each year,

turning on their house and

porch lights, and celebrating

their power to control events in the community. The idea was catching on

in cities across the country.

Hayes was an early convert. “I knew that if we all just stood on our own

doorsteps, there wouldn’t be any crime,” he remembered. “I knew that,

and I thought, ‘I’ve got to say that.’ ”

So Hayes, newly appointed as the sole staff member of the Boston Police

Department’s crime watch unit, took his boss and the head of a neighborhood advocacy group down to Tremont and Park Streets at the edge of the

U.S. Department of Justice

Office of Justice Programs

Bureau of Justice Assistance

May 2000

Onsite Visits, Case Histories, and State 

and Local Innovations From the erspectives Bureau of Justice Assistance

ractitioner

Nancy E. Gist, Director

Bulletin From the Field

National Night Out was established in 1984

with funding from the Bureau of Justice

Assistance (BJA), U.S. Department of

Justice. The program is administered by

the National Association of Town Watch, a

nationwide organization dedicated to the

development, maintenance, and protection

of community-based, law enforcementaffiliated crime prevention activities.

National Night Out was developed as a

crime prevention program that emphasizes

building a partnership between the police

and the community. Community involvement in crime prevention is generated

through a multitude of local events, such

as block parties, cookouts, parades, contests, youth activities, and seminars.

With continued funding from BJA, participation in National Night Out crime prevention activities has increased from 2.5

million people in 400 communities in 1984

to more than 32 million people in 9,530

communities in 1999. Project 365, which

helps communities target specific problems

over the course of the year, was also

developed through BJA funding.

National Night Out’s objectives include

refining the nationwide crime prevention

campaign, documenting successful crime

prevention strategies, expanding Project

365, disseminating information about 

successful community-based strategies,

providing technical assistance on crime

prevention program development, and

developing the National Night Out Web

site. With continued support from BJA,

National Night Out is making communities

across the nation safer places to live.

By Rebecca Morris

National Night Out block party in the Cedar Grove

neighborhood in The Woodlands, Texas (see page 10). 
2

Bulletin From the Field: Practitioner Perspectives

This series is dedicated to the exploration of vital issues in criminal justice program development and management. Case studies highlight the work of progressive, innovative people and programs in state and local criminal

justice systems. Although a case study may include a detailed description of the operational aspects of a program,

it is not a scientific program evaluation. Rather, it is a document designed to explore the interaction of factors

such as collaboration, politics, resources, culture, and others that play a part in successful public management.

Boston Public Garden. As hundreds

milled around the “T” subway

entrance, picnicked in the green, or

just hung out, Hayes took out a proclamation and read it to the masses: The

good people of Boston were taking

back their neighborhoods on this

National Night Out.

“Hardly anybody even looked up,” he

recollected. Fourteen years later, on

August 3, 1999, more than 25,000

people in Boston rallied, held block

parties, and celebrated one of the

largest and most successful crime

prevention programs in the country.

Such growth has occurred nationwide.

In 1999, the 16th National Night Out,

more than 32 million people in 9,530

communities gathered in parks and

streets and front yards, celebrating

yearlong partnerships between police

and communities that have helped

reduce crime. In many cities,

between 10 and 15 percent of the

population, sometimes more, participated in National Night Out in some

way—as organizers or donors, cooks

or art contest judges, exhibit builders

or block captains, not to mention the

people in charge of supplying ice

cream sprinkles.

In some locations there were serious

reminders of what is at stake. In

Chicago, 2 days after a young girl was

hit by a stray bullet while purchasing

candy from a corner store, more than

3,000 NNO participants marched and

rallied in protest. Speaker after

speaker appealed to the crowd:

Someone must have seen what happened; people don’t get shot in broad

daylight without someone knowing

who did it. By nightfall someone

came forward, and the police arrested

two young men.

In most communities, though, the

NNO mood was festive. There were

award dinners and parades and huge

kickoff events. Mayors issued 

declarations, and police commissioners praised community efforts. At the

heart of National Night Out were

gatherings of neighbors, opportunities

for residents to meet one another 

and local beat officers in a friendly

environment.

In Lodi, California, two newcomers to

Bayberry Street—Johnny and Stacey

Moreno—agreed to host a National

Night Out block party so they could

meet their neighbors. It was the first

time this block had celebrated. When

the party started, few people knew

each other. Two hours later, Johnny

Moreno knew Howard, Mark and

Susan, Darrell and Cathy, Paul, Bill,

and George. He knew which houses

were theirs, how long they had been

in the neighborhood, and how they

liked to spend their time. What’s

most important, he knew he could

call them for help if he needed someone, say, to check on his house while

his family was out of town. All of

them met Det. Brian Scott for the first

time—he was the first police officer

with whom many had ever had 

a conversation.

In Vicksburg, Mississippi, Sgt.

Douglas Arp continued his tradition

of hosting one of the biggest and

longest National Night Out parties.

NNO in this community lasts for 7

days in August. Festivities have

taken place at the top of a billboard

and inside an air-conditioned, steamcleaned trash dumpster—wherever

Arp can draw the public’s attention to

the event. One year he literally holed

up in a hole in the ground, complete

with bed, chair, and fan. This year, he

sat in a wrecked car, waving to the

more than 1,160 passers-by and 

welcoming more than 560 visitors,

most of them bearing food. In a town

of just 25,000, Arp’s antics send a 

message about crime prevention

directly to nearly 10 percent of the

population and to many more through

media coverage from nearby Jackson.

Many of these NNO events and gatherings appear to be deceptively simple. People get together and share

food and drink, a few conversations,

and a little information about the

neighborhood or the town. To an outsider, many of these celebrations are

indistinguishable from any other barbecue or street party, except for the

National Night Out banners and

posters. But it is the year-round effort

of building neighborhood organizations and partnerships with police—
National Night Out

3

the work of organizing National Night

Out events—that gives this night its

special meaning.

“This is not ‘Kiss a Cop Day’ or

something like that,” said Peskin,

founder of National Night Out and

executive director of the National

Association of Town Watch (NATW),

which runs the program. “It’s a program that really makes a difference.

It’s a lot of fun to put together, it

reaches deep into neighborhood- and

community-building, and it works.”

When Peskin started National Night

Out, he hoped simply to develop a

higher profile for the community

crime watch activities that he knew

were helping to deter crime. The program has become a good example of

the social capital-building that social

scientists have identified as important

for reducing crime.

The authors of a 1995 study of

Chicago neighborhoods, Neighborhood Collective Efficacy: Does It

Help Reduce Violence?, published

in the journal Science and by the

National Institute of Justice, found

that the largest single predictor of

crime levels was “collective efficacy,”

which they defined as mutual trust

among neighbors combined with willingness to intervene on behalf of the

common good. Neighborhoods with

high collective efficacy scores had

crime rates 40 percent below those

in lower scoring neighborhoods.1

Dr. Wesley Skogan, professor of political science at Northwestern

University in Chicago, who has examined these issues in his research,

noted that “where people are involved

in neighborhood organizations, have

extensive acquaintance networks,

and are willing to

get involved,

there’s a reduction

in violent crime.”2

National Night Out

was founded in

1984 with $15,000

from the National

Crime Prevention

Council’s grant

from the Bureau of

Justice Assistance

(BJA); since then funding for the

event has increased steadily.

Senator Arlen Specter (R–PA) has

been the primary advocate of NNO

funding for many years. “National

Night Out represents an imaginative

and effective approach to crime prevention,” said spokesperson Charles

Robbins. “[Senator Specter] has supported it and expects to support it in

the future.”

In a community impact assessment 

of the program conducted in 1998,

nearly 90 percent of law enforcement

officers who responded to the survey

said NNO in 1997 had enhanced

their agencies’ policing programs.

Three-quarters of residents said they

felt either more or much more comfortable contacting law enforcement

officers after National Night Out, and

64 percent said they felt safer in their

communities. Perhaps most important

for generating partnerships between

residents and police, residents reported meeting, on average, five new law

enforcement officers during the event.

More than half of the respondents

said they had met 25 or more fellow

residents.

National Night Out evolved in part

because a writer was running out of

subjects to write about. In 1981,

Peskin was responsible for his neighborhood crime watch group’s newsletter. When he contacted other groups

for story ideas, he noticed that every

group was having a problem sustaining volunteer interest. He suggested

they start an association to coordinate

their activities and share information.

The National Association of Town

Watch was born, and the idea spread

to other cities. Soon, Peskin was

seeking ways to get even more people

involved in crime watch groups.

“There was no need to be quite so

low profile about it,” he said.

Peskin remembers two images that

helped shape the National Night Out

idea in his mind. One was the scene

from the movie “Network” in which

the anchor urges viewers to go to

their windows, lean out, and shout,

“I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to

take it anymore.” The other was a

soft drink ad about a program called

Hands Across America. “I loved that

idea but I didn’t like the idea that

you had to pay to stand in line,”

Matt Peskin, founder of National Night Out and executive director of

the National Association of Town Watch.
4

Bulletin From the Field: Practitioner Perspectives

Peskin recalled. “Also, it wasn’t real

clear what they were doing.”

But Peskin knew what NATW needed. “I felt we needed to do something

different and powerful and productive, something high profile, with a

high impact and broad scale.”

Inspired by the two film images,

Peskin developed the idea for

National Night Out and presented 

it to his board.

The original concept was very simple:

Everyone in a neighborhood would sit

on their front porch for an hour with

the lights on “to send a clear signal

that there [are] more of us than there

are of them,” Peskin recalled. He

started promoting it in April 1984.

The following August, 400 communities with 2.5 million people in 23

states participated in the first

National Night Out.

Among the first cities participating

were Detroit, Houston, Minneapolis,

New York, and Philadelphia. Despite

the success, “it wasn’t like it was a

real easy sell,” Peskin recalled.

Police chiefs were wary of getting

involved with the new organization

because “if it fell on its face, they

would look like idiots.” The large

turnout and positive media coverage

won them over, and the next year

more than 2,100 communities 

celebrated the event.

Over the years, the national office in

Philadelphia and various communities have added special elements to

the celebration. Block parties were an

innovation in 1986. The following

year, with the introduction of the

awards program, “the communities

really got into it,” competing for top

honors in their city-size category,

Peskin said. In 1994, Project 365

was launched to help communities

identify specific projects they could

address year-round. The projects,

which have included cleaning local

parks, removing graffiti, and establishing new services, begin on Night

Out and conclude 365 days later.

SC Johnson is NNO’s primary corporate sponsor, contributing funds as

well as promotional materials such as

the banners, posters, door-hangers,

and product coupons that block 

captains use to organize events. The

company also organizes local retailers

of Johnson products to offer sponsorships, listing them on the promotional

materials. “We look for programs that

bring meaning from consumer and

trade perspectives and programs that

give back to the community,” said

Marty Killinger, SC Johnson’s manager for promotional resources.

But there are literally thousands of

other local and regional businesses

that contribute to the events: grocery

stores donate food, utilities lower

electricity rates on National Night

Out, and large employers subsidize

employees’ block parties or offer their

parking lots for gatherings.

Today, NATW is still lean, with a 5-

person office and $700,000 budget.

Each February, the office sends out

more than 10,000 organizational

packets to groups around the country,

telling them how to organize or

expand NNO events; how to order

banners, posters, and door-hangers

listing the names of local sponsors;

how to generate media interest in

advance of and during National Night

Out; and whom to contact. The kits

provide camera-ready artwork, sample press releases, a sample National

Night Out proclamation, and an array

of other material to guide local organizers through the planning process.

Participants receive additional mailings in May and July, as well as four

newsletters throughout the year.

Each year the national office 

organizes a huge kickoff event in

Philadelphia the night before

National Night Out. After the event,

staff review contest submissions from

thousands of cities and towns, each

vying to be ranked as the best among

cities of their size. For the contest,

communities submit notebooks and

videos with accounts of successful

crime watch groups and National

Night Out events.

In 1997, BJA funded development of

a Web site (www.natw.org), at which

groups can obtain information about

or register for NNO. Eventually users

will be able to order equipment and

perhaps participate in National Night

Out discussion groups through the

Web site.

The main action, of course, takes

place in cities and towns around the

country. The following five cities have

been ranked among the best in their

size category by NATW for many

More than 32 million people in

9,530 communities gathered in

parks and streets and front

yards, celebrating yearlong partnerships between police and

communities that have helped

reduce crime.
National Night Out

5

years: New Orleans, Louisiana;

Minneapolis, Minnesota; The

Woodlands (Houston), Texas; Boston,

Massachusetts; and Lodi, California.

Although there are similarities among

communities nationwide that celebrate National Night Out, these cities

exemplify the best thinking about

how to make the program successful.

New Orleans,

Louisiana

The evening of August 3, 1999, was

as hot and humid as any summer

night can be in New Orleans, an

evening when those riding the famed

streetcars into the city’s Garden

District fanned themselves and

wished for something cool to drink.

It was weather that typically keeps

people inside their air-conditioned

homes rather than out on the streets.

But this night 18,000 people were

celebrating at more than 375 

neighborhood events. It was a night

when city officials, law enforcement

officers, leaders from communities of

faith, business leaders, and neighborhood residents paused to reflect on

the roles each had played in realizing

a 46-percent decrease in violent

crime since 1995.

Police Sgt. Greg Elder and his staff

coordinate each year’s National

Night Out, but the event is the 

culmination of yearlong efforts to

involve communities in fighting

crime. Throughout the year, Elder’s

department works closely with

neighborhood associations and

Neighborhood Watch programs to

share local crime statistics, hear 

residents’ perspectives, and develop

effective interventions in response 

to citizens’ concerns.

National Night Out focuses attention

on the success of these efforts and

encourages more citizens to get

involved in crime prevention 

activities. The event has become so

institutionalized, Elder said, that

“people feel like they’re missing out

on something if they’re not a part of

it. There’s almost a competition

between neighborhoods to see who

can be most effective.”

The night is designed to accomplish

six goals:

◆ Provide an opportunity for 

neighbors to meet one another.

◆ Increase interaction and 

communication among citizens,

police, and city leaders.

◆ Build relationships of trust and

respect among residents, police,

and city leaders.

◆ Encourage citizens to become

involved in fighting crime.

◆ Allow people to recognize and 

celebrate the successes they 

have achieved through 

cooperative efforts.

◆ Give residents and police a

chance to recommit to working

together.

New Orleans’ events on National

Night Out are as diverse as the

city’s neighborhoods. Some focus

on involving children and youth in

organizing and participating in the

event. Diane Sakowski, organizer 

for the Willowbrook Apartments, says

she got involved because she was

concerned about children and their

well-being. “With innocent kids 

getting killed on the streets every day

from drugs, gangs, and other violent

acts, I had no choice but to get

involved,” she said. “The kids are

our future and if we don’t invest in

them now, we’ll pay later on.”

Planning for the Willowbrook celebration begins several months before

NNO and explicitly involves young

people. This year’s events included a

potluck dinner, a youth talent show,

and group singing and dancing.

“Experience shows that when youth

are involved, they not only show up

and get to know each other, they bring

their parents with them,” Sakowski

said. “This gives the adults the

opportunity to meet each other and

see youth involved in positive activities. It also provides the opportunity to talk with both adults and youth

about crime-related issues and to

give them information on how to protect themselves and their property.”

Other events are organized around

music, such as the one held this year

in the Lakefront Area on beautiful

Lake Pontchartrain, where the Petit

Bois, a band of young people aged 8

to 13, provided the entertainment.

The band’s message to other youth

was pick up an instrument, not a

gun—make music rather than get

into trouble. More than 100 adults

were on hand to celebrate as well.

District A City Council Member

Suzanne Terrell, who attended this

New Orleans’ events on National

Night Out are as diverse as the

city’s neighborhoods. Some

focus on involving children

and youth in organizing and

participating in the event. 
6

Bulletin From the Field: Practitioner Perspectives

event, noted that “New Orleans has

always been a neighborhood-focused

city where people care about each

other. National Night Out, however,

provides an organized opportunity to

publicly say to criminals that citizens

living in this neighborhood are not

going to put up with criminal activity.

If you do something wrong there will

be a reaction from the neighborhood

residents as well as the police

department. This is very effective 

in preventing crimes.”

And then there is the famed French

Quarter, where parties happen 365

days a year. This year’s National

Night Out celebration, organized by

B.B. St. Roman, was one of the few

events in the Quarter at which locals

outnumbered tourists. With her beautiful cockatoo, Iko, sitting on her

shoulder, St. Roman recalled that

when she first moved to the French

Quarter she lived behind locked

doors because she was afraid to go

out into the streets.

“When I saw my 90-year-old neighbor

going out onto the street shouting at

some kids who were vandalizing property, I knew I had to get involved,” St.

Roman said. “I

realized that if

she could be

involved, so

could I. If I

wanted to have

a nice block to

live on, I had to

do something.

That meant

coming out from

behind locked

doors, getting to

know my neighbors, finding out

from police what

kind of crime was occurring in my

neighborhood, and then taking a role

in stopping that crime.” According to

St. Roman, their neighborhood efforts

have been successful. “The neighborhood is a different place now than

it was just 3 years ago,” she said.

“Drug trafficking is down substantially as are quality-of-life crimes.

We now have reason to celebrate!”

New Orleans may know how to party,

but everyone involved in National

Night Out—neighborhood residents,

city officials, business leaders, and

police—agreed on a set of best practices required to give New Orleans, 

or any city, something to celebrate.

Leadership from the top. All 

sectors, including the police, 

business community, and city government, must support the effort, and

they must understand and make a

commitment to the fundamentals of 

community policing and citizen

involvement in crime reduction. In

New Orleans, new Police Superintendent Richard Pennington restructured the department to get more officers working in the neighborhoods

and redesigned the officer training 

program to emphasize building 

effective community partnerships. 

The city’s business leadership

endowed a Police Foundation with

enough resources to provide 

supplemental funds for community

policing, and elected officials 

upgraded police salaries and

increased the number of police 

officers. All of these groups actively

participate in NNO activities.

Leadership at the grassroots

level. In each neighborhood at

least one local resident must take

responsibility for community organizing. In most cases this involves

year-round coordination of neighborhood meetings, monitoring of crime

statistics, and engagement of city and

police department officials when

appropriate.

Each neighborhood has various 

assets upon which to build, including 

residents, faith communities, and 

community-based service organizations. Roles for these partners need to

be identified so they can become part

of the solution. In New Orleans these

roles include providing space for

meetings, contributing funds for a

National Night Out event, providing

photocopying services for community

meeting notices, distributing the

notices, and providing recognition of

community citizens working on crime

reduction activities.

Relationships of trust and

respect between citizens and

police. A conscious effort must be

made to provide opportunities for 

citizens and police to get to know one

another. Communication must be twoway—that is, citizens need to hear

what concerns police have and police

need to hear what citizens have to

Block captains for the Gentilly Gardens Neighborhoods Watch Group in

New Orleans. Left to right: Martha Johnson, Rebecca Bell, Rachelle 

Defillo, Carol LaMotte, and Val Lacey.
National Night Out

7

say. Recognition that each has something to contribute to making neighborhoods safe is critical to forming

the partnerships necessary to be

effective in reducing crime.

In New Orleans, police officers are

expected to attend any Neighborhood

Watch meeting at which they are

needed and the police department

provides monthly briefings for 

neighborhood leaders noting crimes

committed in their neighborhood 

during the month. Further, if special

circumstances arise and neighborhood leaders need special meetings,

the police make themselves available.

A point person in the police

department to coordinate NNO

efforts citywide. Because National

Night Out is part of an overall community policing strategy, Sgt. Elder

has not only responsibility for the

program but the authority and

resources to make it happen. 

Effective pre- and postevent

publicity. Among the strategies

used in New Orleans to secure publicity are a partnership with a local

television station to provide publicity before, during, and after the

events; contributions from Cox

Communications to develop public

service announcements; support

from local television and radio 

stations to schedule appearances by

police, citizens, and city leaders on

local broadcasts; phone interviews

as requested by the media; an 

in-kind contribution advertising the

event on the Superdome pylon;

advertising space on billboards and

in bus shelters contributed by

Outdoor Systems; and advertising

space on taxicab displays.

Public recognition for jobs well

done. Any individual, business,

or organization

that participates in

the coordination or

sponsorship of an

event should be

publicly recognized for contributing. The

recognition takes

many forms, ranging from thank-you letters from 

public officials to public recognition

ceremonies at which awards are 

presented.

Linkage of National Night Out to

year-round efforts. Neighborhood

Watch, neighborhood associations,

civic groups, neighborhood town hall

meetings, and other gatherings of citizens can provide the opportunity to

talk about crime prevention on an

ongoing basis.

Officials and residents argued that

these critical elements of National

Night Out, together with an effective

community policing strategy, have

been central to reducing crime. “We

don’t have to have a policeman on

every corner,” said Police Capt. Ernie

Demma, commander of the Eighth

District in the French Quarter. “But

we do have to have citizens working

with the police. A 10-percent

increase in citizen participation is

equivalent to a 50-percent increase 

in police manpower.”

Minneapolis,

Minnesota

“Zhoo...Way...Noh...Dig” read the

brightly colored poster, one of many

adorning the walls of the Minnesota

Indian Women’s Resource Center.

The phrase, written in Ojibwe in a

child’s handwriting, means “Taking

care of each other,” a crime prevention message for the Center’s 

celebration of National Night Out. In

the cafeteria, dozens of women from

the Dakota, Lakota, and Ho-chunk

Nations sat talking while young children played, filling the space with

laughter and joy. Sue Kincade, the

Center’s human resources coordinator, organized the event in cooperation with other city leaders and spoke

of teaching Native-American children

“understanding, not violence.”

A few blocks away in Powderhorn

Park, State Patrol Air Wing Trooper

Bob Ringold gently set his helicopter

down on the park’s playing field.

Dozens of delighted children and

their curious parents joined Barb

King, NNO organizer for the 3100

block of 14th Avenue South, in this

kickoff of what she called the

“Avenue of the Stars” block party.

More than 400 former and current

neighbors, listening to the rock band

Rick and the Resisters, would enjoy

the summer evening’s crime prevention event. Back in the park, families

eagerly waited to pose for a picture

In New Orleans, the Louisiana Superdome’s electronic billboard advertises National Night Out events.
8

Bulletin From the Field: Practitioner Perspectives

activists, told success stories of 

overcoming the tragedy of a neighborhood murder and victories in

combating burglary, drug dealing,

prostitution, petty theft, traffic 

problems, nuisance houses, fear, and

hopelessness—challenging neighborhood problems that motivated them to

step forward and take back their

streets, parks, and peace of mind.

It’s hard to imagine an undercurrent

of crime in a city with such natural

beauty, a booming economy, and 

a history of progressive civicmindedness. Think of Mary Tyler

Moore’s portrayal of Mary Richards

tossing her hat in the air in downtown

Minneapolis, and you sense the

promise of this City of Lakes.

alongside city and park police, while

Trooper Bob discussed the $1.7 million aircraft’s role in crime prevention.

At the Madison Apartments on the

500 block of East

15th Street, located in Minneapolis’

Central neighborhood, Alia

Mohamed, wearing traditional

Somalian dress,

sat in a circle with

other Somalian

women, quietly

encouraging their

participation in

community organizing. Moments before the yard of the

apartment complex had been filled

with the smells of East African foods,

enjoyed by the neighbors and local

community crime prevention police

officers. As the event came to a close,

children ran freely on the lush lawns,

Somalian men huddled together in

the setting sun, and teenage boys

dressed in Tommy Hilfiger clothes

hung out in groups watching the

teenage girls. For the Somalis this was

the first National Night Out event

organized for their large and growing

community. This evening’s theme,

expressed by Abdi Gure, was Take

Charge of Your Neighborhood, a new

concept to these refugees from a

country torn asunder by civil strife.

As National Night Out events unfolded across the city, Minneapolis,

which is ranked first among large

cities by NATW for organizing crime

prevention block clubs, lived up to its

reputation. Organizers for the city,

including Kincade, King, Gure, and

Mohamed, along with many other

In the newly renovated interior court

of the Minneapolis City Hall, Mayor

Sharon Sayles Belton, the first

African-American woman to be elected mayor in a major American city,

thanked city employees for their part

in the success of National Night Out.

This year, she said, more than 850

block parties representing 1,714

blocks registered. (Later, police

announced that more than 42,105 citizens, or 11.5 percent of the city’s population, had participated, representing 

30 percent of its streets.)

About to embark on a whirlwind tour

of 10 block parties, the mayor laughed

that she would eat her way “across the

city,” joining residents who were

filling streets,

parks, and school

yards for an

evening of food,

fun, and, most

important, 

conversation.

This year’s

theme—Back 

to Basics—

emphasized

strengthening existing block clubs

and organizing new ones. Theresa

Ruhland, a crime prevention manager for CCP/SAFE, the Minneapolis

Police Department’s community

crime prevention unit, noted that

“block clubs in Minneapolis, and in

Minnesota in general, grew out of a

long history of civic-mindedness and

neighborhood organizing.” Lucy

Gerold, director of the police department’s community services bureau,

explained that “block associations

and the organizing of block leaders

date back to the early seventies when

a Department of Justice’s Law

The Phillips neighborhood of Minneapolis comes together on the 2500

block of 16th Avenue South.

Alia Mohamed and Abdi Gure, civilian employees of the Minneapolis Police

Department and community crime prevention organizers, preside over the first

National Night Out event organized for the growing Somalian community.
National Night Out

9

Enforcement Assistance Administration [LEAA] grant provided the

seed money for three pilot projects 

to develop local block clubs” with 

a focus on reducing neighborhood

burglaries. Today, among many 

other crime prevention activities,

CCP/SAFE coordinates Minneapolis’

National Night Out.

CCP/SAFE’s Unit 24 organizes teams

(each consisting of a uniformed officer and a civilian crime prevention

specialist) assigned to the city’s 5

precincts. A central crime prevention

office houses three crime prevention

managers and support staff who coordinate the CCP/SAFE programs.

Working in collaboration with other

city departments and social service

agencies, CCP/SAFE teams address a

wide variety of “livability problems,”

meeting routinely with block clubs,

neighborhood associations, and 

other community groups to prioritize

problems and to involve residents in

solutions.

To create and strengthen block clubs,

the backbone of community crime

prevention efforts, CCP/SAFE works

year-round to engage citizens in 

community organizing. Dozens of 

volunteers, block leaders, corporate 

sponsors, and CCP/SAFE personnel

meet monthly to plan and organize

NNO—sending out information, news

releases, announcements, block party

suggestions, and street-closing permits. The philosophy of Minneapolis’

National Night Out event is captured

in five key messages, reinforced in

National Night Out and CCP/SAFE

literature and presentations:

◆ Cohesive, healthy neighborhoods

are key to preventing crime and

violence.

◆ Active block clubs build community, increase hope, and create

harmony.

◆ Positive activities displace negative activities; as people spend

more time outside, they take back

their streets and neighborhoods.

◆ National Night Out is an opportunity for all parts of the community,

including businesses, corporate

sponsors, religious institutions,

city agencies, and news media, 

to come together to promote the

shared goal of a safe, healthy 

community.

◆ National Night Out reinforces the

partnership of citizens and police

to combat crime.

From April through July, CCP/SAFE

teams conducted outreach to more

than 200 blocks, and 66 new block

club meetings were organized. “If a

neighborhood does not have a block

club, CCP/SAFE team members will

go door to door to encourage someone to step forward and assist with

organizing the neighborhood,”

Ruhland said. Gerold captured the

responsibility block leaders assume

in neighborhood problem solving by

noting “block organizers can’t be

anonymous—your life is on the

block, you are connected, you are

just a door or two away from a 

problem or a solution.”

When a block club has been organized, CCP/SAFE team members offer

leadership training and help organizers set up meetings in their homes,

local schools, churches, or precinct

station houses. Throughout the year

CCP/SAFE teams offer 2 1/2-hour

block club leadership trainings. In

1998, more than 200 people attended, of whom 61 organized new block

clubs and National Night Out street

parties. The highly successful block

club leadership trainings consist of

six elements:

◆ An overview of the CCP/SAFE

and Minneapolis Police Department organizational structures

and functions.

◆ An introduction to crime prevention strategies such as making a

home safer through physical security (hardware) improvements.

◆ A review of crime prevention 

programs sponsored by the police

department, such as the McGruff

House (a residence on the block

designated as a safe house for

children under 12) and Watchforce (a group of citizens who 

participate in surveillance and

reporting of community problems).

◆ A discussion of issues such as

building community in diverse

settings, youth involvement, 

and networking.

◆ Lessons on the basics of organizing a block/apartment club/

Minneapolis, which is ranked first

among large cities by NATW for

organizing crime prevention block

clubs, lived up to its reputation.

Organizers for the city told success

stories of overcoming the tragedy

of a neighborhood murder and 

victories in combating burglary,

drug dealing, prostitution, petty

theft, traffic problems, nuisance

houses, fear, and hopelessness. 
10

Bulletin From the Field: Practitioner Perspectives

network, including the roles and

responsibilities of block leaders.

◆ Information on how to solve 16

“common problems” such as 

traffic problems, youth causing

neighborhood disturbances, 

prostitution, loitering, drug 

houses, abandoned dwellings,

and adult and child welfare issues.

A beat-up van sits in a parking lot

behind an abandoned building down

the street from Linda Kolkind’s home

on the 3700 block of 14th Avenue

South. On the sides of the van, in

neatly spray-painted letters, are the

statements “Real Men Don’t Buy

Women” and “Pimps Are Wimps.”

The parking lot, once a meeting

place for johns and prostitutes, serviced a booming sex industry along

the busy commercial strip adjacent to

Kolkind’s tree-lined street. Kolkind

knew all too well Gerold’s observation that “block organizers can’t be

anonymous” when she approached

pimps, prostitutes, and johns to stop

the noise and chaos the open-air sex

market created.

Joining with another neighbor (“You

can’t do this kind of work alone”),

making demands of the local precinct

and councilmember (“We must have

called a hundred times”), working

with the vice squad (“They observed

from my living room window”), and

collaborating with the CCP/SAFE

team, Kolkind went door to door,

organizing her neighbors in an effort

to develop a strategy of peaceful,

legal, in-your-face confrontation that

pushed the sex trade out of her

neighborhood and off her block.

On National Night Out, Kolkind 

celebrated by sitting in a lawn chair

in the center of her street talking

with friends. A few houses away, her

neatly kept yard, dotted with perennials and enclosed by a picket fence,

belied the fact that this now peaceful

street was once the scene of dozens

of cruising cars with drivers searching for a quick exchange of sex for

money. Shortly after moving to the

block and into her first home, the

self-described ex-hippie, seeing the

drug and sex trades, thought she had

made a huge mistake and considered

moving to a safer part of town.

Instead Kolkind decided to take a

stand and “stop the insanity” being

created by the noise and crime in her

neighborhood. Today, ever vigilant,

Kolkind’s gutsy organizing skills have

reaped a strong block club and 

several more on adjoining streets.

The Woodlands

(Houston), Texas

Driving down the Woodlands

Parkway on National Night Out, you

never would have known that more

than half the residents of The

Woodlands were out partying with

their neighbors. That’s because virtually all 20,000 homes here are concealed behind walls of pine trees,

deep inside a maze of streets and

cul-de-sacs.

Like so much else in this planned

community 30 miles north of

Houston, the winding streets with

names like Rush Haven and Peaceful

Canyon Drive are deliberate attempts

to make residents feel secure. More

than three-fourths of the streets end

in cul-de-sacs, making it hard for

burglars to find their way around and

easy for residents to get to know their

neighbors. This neighborhood is not

only a hidden haven where every

home comes wired for security but

also a community where neighbors

watch out for neighbors even though

the population has doubled in the

last decade.

“We know every single person in this

neighborhood,” said Vickie Busic as

she pushed her infant son down her

street in a stroller and chatted with

neighbors on National Night Out.

“Every single one. There are only two

ways in here and two ways out, and if

somebody’s not supposed to be here,

we know it.”

Busic, a stay-at-home mom, said

her husband, a sales manager for 

a wine company, has twice turned

down job offers in the 3 years

they’ve lived here so they could

stay in The Woodlands. “This is 

our extended family,” she said.

“Someday I’ll be able to let my

child play outside and know I’m not

the only one keeping an eye on him.

That’s why we live here.”

That desire to be part of a community is typical of The Woodlands’

56,000 residents and one of the main

reasons 32,000 of them participated

in NNO this year, said Marian Leck,

manager of Woodlands Watch, the

neighborhood crime watch group that

coordinates National Night Out for

the area.

Police announced that more than

42,105 citizens, or 11.5 percent 

of Minneapolis’ population, had

participated, representing

30 percent of its streets.
National Night Out

11

prevention and

public safety 

year-round—from

curb-numbering to

registering bicycles to organizing

a telephone network through

which the sheriff

can issue crime

watch alerts—

culminating in

National Night

Out. In The

Woodlands, the

staff’s salaries and

these programs cost the owner of a

$164,000 house, the median sale

price there, less than $11 a year.

Although the staff does not answer to

a volunteer advisory board or city

government in this unincorporated

community—but to the boards of the

property owners’ associations themselves—at the core of Woodlands

Watch are 1,100 volunteers who coordinate Watch events in their neighborhoods. From the ranks of those

volunteers came almost all of this

year’s 300 NNO coordinators, who

signed up to help out after receiving

party registration forms inside the

Woodlands Watchword newsletter sent

to all Woodlands Watch volunteers in

June. National Night Out could not

have achieved the popularity it has in

The Woodlands without these volunteers, who hang signs, remind their

neighbors about National Night Out

when they meet for softball, fill 

balloons with free helium at the grocery store, and decide which side of

their street’s residents should bring

the ice cream and which should 

bring the sprinkles. But much of the

evening’s success is attributed to the

full-time staff who handle paperwork,

publicity, finances, and, most of 

all, planning.

“It’s easy to be a volunteer here

because it’s so organized,” said

Stephanie Teed, a music teacher who

has helped coordinate her neighborhood’s party for the past 7 years.

“You just call them up and say, ‘I

want to have a party,’ and they send

you a packet with everything you

need to know.”

Woodlands Watch’s planning begins

early, before city pools and parks

have been reserved. In January or

February, the staff schedules a series

of pre-events that generate publicity

for National Night Out, educate the

public on crime prevention, and give

residents additional opportunities to

interact with sheriff’s and constable’s

deputies, FBI agents, 911 dispatchers, firefighters, and emergency 

medical workers. On the agenda for

1999 were Meet the Police Day at a

new sheriff’s station in May; Family

Fun Night at the YMCA pool in June;

and National Night Out with Sirens

and Suspenders for fifth, sixth, and

seventh graders at the Woodlands

Recreation Center in July. From a

float at the Montgomery County

Fourth of July Parade, Watch workers

also passed out 2,500 fans—“not

nearly enough,” Leck said—inviting

residents to National Night Out.

These pre-events cost Woodlands

Watch approximately $200, mostly

for hot dogs and chips. The group

also paid a local company $2,200 to

produce a video about National Night

Out in The Woodlands as part of its

entry in the nationwide NNO competition. An additional $4,500 went

toward purchasing the fans and other

From left, 15-year-old Catherine Bourne, 12-year-old Caitlyn Hopkins,

and 15-year-old Shannon Hopkins check out safety tips for teens at a

party for the Cochran’s Green neighborhood in The Woodlands.

John Everett

“People move here because they

want to be part of a community, and

that makes my job that much easier,”

said Leck, a former sheriff’s deputy.

“They know that if you create a sense

of community, that will lead to a 

safe community.”

Just how safe? Lt. Ollie Coward,

commander of the Montgomery

County Sheriff’s Department district

that includes The Woodlands, said

that although theft is a problem in

this fast-growing area, particularly at

construction sites, there are relatively

few home burglaries and “an

astounding lack of violent crime.”

In 1997, there were just 0.78 violent

crimes for every 1,000 residents,

compared with 11.74 in Houston.

But Woodlands residents pay for their

security. Woodlands Watch is one of

the nation’s few Neighborhood Watch

groups with a paid staff, and its

$237,000-a-year budget comes from

the annual dues homeowners and

business owners pay their community

associations. Leck, two other fulltime organizers, and three part-time

assistants work to promote crime
12

Bulletin From the Field: Practitioner Perspectives

promotional goodies from NATW:

1,000 balloons,

500 T-shirts, 500

frisbees, 432 pencils, and 36 caps

to give away to

volunteers, public

safety personnel,

and contest winners. Through

funding from SC

Johnson, the

national association also provided

4,000 invitations to

hang on residents’ doors, 400 posters,

and 10 banners—plus suggestions for

safety games, sample press releases,

and tips for organizing the event.

Since its first National Night Out 

9 years ago with just 60 volunteers,

Woodlands Watch has not had any

problems organizing the event. By the

time the big night rolled around this

year, Woodlands Watch staffers had

nothing left to do except drop in at 

as many of the area’s 128 parties as

possible before sunset.

Each party also received visits from

some of the 57 public safety personnel who participated in National

Night Out. School police officers

arrived on bikes or with their K–9

partners. Mall security guards on

horseback visited senior centers.

Firefighters brought their trucks;

emergency medical workers, their

ambulances; and deputy constables,

their patrol cars. Sheriff’s deputies

passed out collector cards, produced

by the Optimists Club and sponsored

by local businesses, featuring local

deputies instead of baseball players.

To make sure there were enough 

public safety personnel to attend this

year’s parties—1,100 houses had

been built since last year’s NNO—

Woodlands Watch encouraged coordinators to consolidate block parties at

neighborhood parks. Where there

would have been seven small parties

a few years ago, there may have been

only one big party this year.

That’s the kind of organization that

law enforcement agencies appreciate.

Constable Tim Holifield said his only

contribution to National Night Out

in The Woodlands was scheduling

enough deputy constables to work

that night. By giving them an extra

day off before the event, he doesn’t

have to pay overtime. Likewise, the

Sheriff’s Department avoids paying

overtime by careful scheduling, said

Coward. It’s a time commitment law

enforcement agencies are willing to

make in the hope that friendly

encounters with a deputy will make

children feel that they can turn to 

the police when they need help and

make adults feel like they’re part 

of a crime-fighting partnership 

with police.

“This is a chance to let people meet

us when they’re not getting a traffic

ticket,” Coward said. “This is a

chance to educate citizens on how

they can be our eyes and ears.”

Boston, Massachusetts

Nearly two dozen police cars, lights

pulsating, sirens screaming, poured

into the streets of the Dorchester section of Boston in late afternoon on

August 3, 1999. People froze on the

street, eyes wide with curiosity.

This entrance was impressive, but the

police weren’t there to perform a drug

bust or break up a loud party. They

had come instead to make some noise

of their own. It was the last day of

National Night Out in Boston, a 5-

day celebration of the partnership

between police and neighborhood

crime watch groups. With the city

enjoying its lowest crime rate in more

than three decades, there was a lot to

celebrate.

Dorchester Avenue was blocked off

for the celebration. There were

clowns, face-painting booths,

Vietnamese dragon dancers, African

dancing demonstrations, and free ice

cream for the kids. Tables were

loaded with information about HIV

and AIDS prevention, senior 

services, and a local community 

health center.

In every corner of the city, parties

were jumping. Some were official 

celebrations with hundreds of participants, visited by a cavalcade that at

times included 29 cars and nearly

100 police and top city officials.

Others were smaller affairs. Most

were funded through donations or

discounts offered by area businesses

and were organized by community

police officers and neighborhood

crime watch groups. The money

raised for each party was relatively

Cpl. Matt Blakelock of the Conroe Independent School District’s police

force talks with children at a park party for the Cochran’s Green neighborhood in The Woodlands.

John Everett
National Night Out

13

modest (up to $1,300), but there were

substantial in-kind donations and

party organizers made their purchases carefully to stretch their funds.

In East Boston seniors and youth

enjoyed bouquets of blue balloons

and a seven-piece brass band, while

police officer Daniel Simons grilled

some of the 1,200 hamburgers and

hot dogs that were donated by a local

supermarket chain. Simons said that

this was a day for residents to see the

police as regular people. “Sometimes

they feel when they see us in uniform

that we’re a little unapproachable.

But when they see us like this,” he

gestured with a spatula, “they

become a little more friendly.”

In Jamaica Plain, Police Community

Service Supervisor Larry van Zandt

donned a big smile and a tall chef’s

hat. “This is our way of showing the

community we truly serve them,” he

quipped as he stoked two hot grills.

From 10 a.m. until 10 p.m. the city’s

top brass, including the mayor and

the police commissioner, attended 10

celebrations in every police district

in the city, applauding residents for

participating in crime watch groups.

The day’s celebration began on the

Massachusetts Avenue Bridge, which

spans the Charles River between

Boston and Cambridge, where police

and citizens from 21 towns and cities

held hands while helicopters buzzed

overhead and police and fire department boats sprayed fountains of

water below. It was a symbolic act 

of the partnership between police

and residents.

“They’re the eyes and ears of the

Boston Police Department,”

Superintendent and Chief Robert

Faherty said of the citizen crime

watchers in the city. “They know

things that are going on in their

neighborhoods that we’d never know

because they’re there all the time.

And it’s their information that makes

the streets safe.”

Elsa Ogunjobi’s neighborhood is a

perfect example. Ogunjobi is a single

mother and nurse who must often

return home late at night and until

recently had been living right behind

a crack house. “It was dangerous and

I was afraid something might go

wrong and there might be a shootout,” she remembered.

Just 2 weeks before National Night

Out, police cleaned out the house,

and the arrests were in large part the

result of work by the crime watch

group Ogunjobi helped start 7 years

ago. “We just got together as a family,” she recalled of her neighbors.

They watched the house and talked

on the phone, noted faces and license

plates, and worked with community

police officer Paul Johnston, who has

been in their Dorchester neighborhood for 8 years. “He’s a dear friend

to me because he works so hard on

my street to keep us safe,” Ogunjobi

said. “And he promised that and he

stuck to his promise.”

Ogunjobi could barely contain her

enthusiasm as she listened to city

and police officials address the

crowd gathered in Dorchester on

National Night Out. Like a onewoman crime watch cheerleader, she

Representatives from 21 Boston area communities join hands across the Massachusetts Avenue bridge linking Boston and Cambridge to help kick off

National Night Out.

Boston Herald
14

Bulletin From the Field: Practitioner Perspectives

shouted out her approval. “Yeah!”

she whooped, waving her hand in the

air, urging the speakers on.

Boston’s crime watch program has

built relationships not only between

police and residents but also among

residents. Those who have been part

of a crime watch group say they help

weave a strong support web from

neighbor to neighbor, overcoming the

many barriers that sometimes keep

people apart. Ogunjobi’s neighborhood

is home to Asian, Caucasian, Latin

American, Caribbean, and AfricanAmerican residents. She describes

her street residents as close-knit.

“Because we have been through a lot

of severe crimes, we have come to be

not only neighbors, but family.”

As mentioned earlier, 14 years ago,

Hayes started the first crime watch

group in Boston on his block in the

South End. The summer before he

joined the police department, his

street was tormented by a series of

muggings. Hayes, who was 53, began

standing alone on his block at night.

Soon his neighbors joined him and

the muggings stopped. Since that

humble beginning, 1,022 crime

watch groups have emerged in the

city. For Hayes, these groups are the

key to building strong communities.

“The common ingredient we found

across the city is that neighbors don’t

know neighbors anymore,” said

Hayes. “We have found that there’s a

hunger to do that on the streets. That

people seem to jump at it.” Hayes

described the simple act of neighbors

introducing themselves to one another as a kind of magic. Perceived 

barriers that sometimes keep people

apart, such as language, race, 

religion, and lifestyle, “seem to

evaporate very, very quickly.” As

people get to know one another,

they start to show concern.

As the official cavalcade wound its

way across the city, Hayes addressed

the crowds at every stop, handing out

community service awards to crime

watchers in every neighborhood. “It

is the police department’s way of 

saying thank you to neighborhoods

and to those who have gone the extra

mile,” explained Tracy Amalfitano,

project director of National Night Out

in Boston and assistant director of the

crime watch unit.

On Dorchester Avenue, Hayes gave

Theresa O’Neil an award for starting

a crime watch group after she noticed

drug dealing and car vandalism in

her neighborhood near Carney

Hospital. She reached out to her

neighbors, to police, to other crime

watch groups, and to the hospital

administration—all of whom began to

work together to solve the problem.

“It was a decay that was starting outside her front steps, that went across

the street, down through the park into

other neighborhoods,” Hayes said as

he cited O’Neil’s work. “Think small.

If we can stop a little bit of an infection, it’s not going to spread to a 

serious illness in the neighborhood.”

Mayor Thomas M. Menino called

crime watches “one of the most 

effective tools we have in fighting

crime,” and said that National Night

Out was an important crime awareness tool—especially today when

crime rates are dropping.

For the ninth consecutive year the

crime rate has dropped in Boston,

with the largest decrease in homicides, which are at their lowest level

since 1961. For the past 5 years

Boston has outpaced cities nationwide in serious crime reduction, and

is now ranked as the 12th safest large

city in the country.

“[National Night Out] puts awareness

of crime in front of people again,”

Menino said. “Because we are going

through good times, it’s not time to

Dressing up for National Night Out in the Roslindale neighborhood in Boston.
National Night Out

15

get complacent. It’s time to redouble

our efforts and make sure we don’t go

back to where we were 10 years ago.”

In the early 1990s, before neighborhood policing was firmly established

in Boston, the police presence on tiny

Nonquit Street in Dorchester was

minimal and residents didn’t know

each other’s names. All that changed

when one African-American woman,

Magnolia Munroe-Gordon, and one

white woman, Ruth Clarke, together

planted a community garden in a

vacant lot.

Munroe-Gordon lived next door to the

vacant lot, which in those days was

used as a garbage heap by neighbors

who hurled everything from old tires

to car parts to trash bags over the

fence. But what really got to MunroeGordon was the ragweed, which grew

up to 10 feet tall, blew into her 

window, and made her and her son

sick with allergies. She couldn’t get

the city to mow it down, so she decided to organize her neighbors to plant

a community garden. Clarke threw

her support behind Munroe-Gordon

and promised to help.

“I finally found someone who shared

a dream,” said Clarke. As the garden

evolved the neighbors got to know

each other and began to discuss other

problems in the neighborhood.

“There [were] drug dealing [and] loud

parties, and there were gang hangouts,” Munroe-Gordon recalled. “It

was pretty bad. We were under 

siege. . . . The loud parties went from

10 p.m. to 3 a.m. We would eventually call the police department, but

we’d get very little response.” Finally,

Clarke wrote a letter to the superintendent of police and soon afterward

officers started to make regular visits

to Nonquit Street.

“We started with flowers,” recalled

Aime Owens, a resident for 13 years.

“Then we started with telephone lines

to each other when we saw things

going on in the street. [Today,] we all

know each other. We know whose

children [are whose].”

Things have improved so much on

Nonquit Street that 2 years ago it was

chosen as an official National Night

Out site, visited by the cavalcade.

This year the neighborhood enjoyed a

quieter, more intimate celebration, far

from the whirring lights of the police

cars and the speechmaking of officials. As the setting sun turned brick

buildings a pale orange, neighbors

gathered around long tables adorned

with colored crepe paper, set under

street lamps, to share an abundant

homemade meal.

Children biked up and down Nonquit

Street; one little boy backed into

Officer Edward Hairston’s police

bike, knocking it over. Hairston just

laughed and pinned a plastic “Junior

Police” badge on the child’s shirt. On

National Night Out Hairston didn’t

have enough of these popular badges

to pass around. He said National

Night Out “unifies the community”

and fosters communication with

adults who were involved with the

police in the past. “You get together

on a one-on-one basis and privately

talk about an incident that may have

occurred a year or two ago. . . .

This is a good way to make things a

lot smoother.”

From tiny neighborhood picnics to

parties for 1,000 people, National

Night Out in Boston has grown so

much that as soon as the year’s 

celebration concludes, planning 

for the next one begins.

The neighborhood crime watch unit

plans the largest citywide events.

Captains in each police district 

facilitate the planning of the main

celebration in their particular district

and choose the site that the police

cavalcade visits in their district. On

June 1 of every year the crime watch

unit sends a letter to every crime

watch group in the city, offering 

technical assistance and asking the

groups to return a card detailing their

plans. This information is then sent 

to the captains of each district, who

send police officers to every 

neighborhood celebration.

The celebration kicks off days before

the actual National Night Out with an

award ceremony for a children’s

poster contest. The 26 winning artists

received U.S. savings bonds for as

much as $200 and art supplies. The

entire event, which includes a buffet

meal for winners and their families,

costs just under $7,000 and is funded

by donations from eight Boston businesses and institutions. This year,

organizers of the poster contest were

pleased by the lack of violence

depicted in the posters.

From tiny neighborhood picnics to

parties for 1,000 people, National

Night Out in Boston has grown 

so much that as soon as the 

year’s celebration concludes, 

planning for the next one begins.
16

Bulletin From the Field: Practitioner Perspectives

Another major Boston event is the

Crime Watch Awards ceremony. Ten

crime watch groups and one individual, the crime watcher of the year,

are feted with food and awards 

handed out by the mayor and police

commissioner. In addition, the city

sponsors a mini-cavalcade on July

31 through three neighborhoods 

and awards are presented to crimefighting residents.

Among the award winners was the

Groom/Humphreys Neighborhood

Crime Watch, which has grown dramatically since its founding 7

months before National Night Out.

The group, which includes Cape

Verdean, Puerto Rican, Cuban,

Colombian, and African-American

members, has worked closely with

the police to address safety issues

including inadequate street lighting,

abandoned buildings, and intimidation by gangs.

At one point during the awards ceremony, Henry Fernando Bossa, a

leader of the group, got everyone on

their feet to applaud the police officers in the room. Since his group

began meeting, relations with the

police have improved considerably, he

said, with at least five police officers

attending every crime watch meeting.

Police quickly respond to the group’s

requests for help and information, he

said, and put their lives on the line.

“They do a heroic job.”

Lodi, California

Susan Thoms usually is tap dancing

her way across a floor on Tuesday

nights, but she let her class know

she’d have to miss the lesson on

August 3 because it was National

Night Out and her neighborhood was

having a block party. No problem,

they decided: We’ll hold class at the

party.

So around 8 p.m., nine tap dancers

and their leader, Susan Sixkiller,

piled out of cars into the street for a

special performance in front of nearly

three dozen neighbors gathered on

Howard Street. It was the sixth year

that Howard Street neighbors were

celebrating the recovery of their

neighborhood.

As the dancers tapped out “Put on

Your Dancin’ Shoes,” Alice Baker

recalled the problems that led

Howard Street to

form a neighborhood watch

group in 1994.

“We were having

trouble with

drug dealing” at

the house next to

block captain

Cindy Jorey’s,

she remembered. “We

would see young

teenagers riding

their bikes with

backpacks, they

would go in the

side door, and

within minutes they would come out

and leave,” she said. Her husband,

Mayland, recalled, “We got pictures of

little school children going in and out

of there. I’d go out in the morning to

get the newspaper, and at 5:30 some

guy’s sitting on a bicycle across the

street looking at me.”

So the Bakers, Jorey, and others on

the block started taking down license

plate numbers, pressuring the dealers

and the landlord, and working with

police. “At one point we ran a biker

out of our neighborhood,” Alice Baker

said. They took up a collection to form

the watch group and made plans for

their first National Night Out celebration. Within a month, the landlord

finally evicted the dealers, and another house next door where trouble

seemed to be brewing also was 

vacated.

Ever since, the Howard Street watch

group has been one of Lodi’s most

active, celebrating what Alice 

Baker calls a “very, very quiet 

neighborhood.”

Groups like this are at the heart of

Neighborhood Watch and National

Night Out for Mary Fuhs, the community services officer who organizes

these activities in Lodi each year. “I

want people to understand they have

power within themselves to make positive changes,” Fuhs said. Sometimes

that may mean something as simple

as talking with a neighbor. “All we

are doing,” she said, “is giving people

an opportunity to do something they

want to do and are afraid to do in our

Members of the Steppin’ Out tap dancers entertain the Howard Street block

party in Lodi.

Jerry Tyson
National Night Out

17

society. They just need an excuse and

we’re giving them an excuse.”

Lodi, a city of 58,000, is located in

central Joaquin County, the heart of

California wine country. A sign at the

edge of town welcomes visitors to the

“U.S. Capital of Wine Grapes” and it

is followed by vineyards and advertisements for wine tastings along the

road long before the city comes into

full view. But Lodi also has a sturdy

manufacturing base, a large number

of dairies, and a significant commuter

population (about a third of its working population commutes to nearby

Stockton and to as far away as

Sacramento).

There are only about 350 residential

burglaries and 350 car thefts a year

in Lodi—numbers that have held

steady despite an increasing 

population—but the city is one of the

country’s largest methamphetamine

suppliers, with dozens, perhaps 

hundreds, of mostly “Mom and Pop”

labs scattered throughout the area.

Still, the labs do not appear to have

engendered a substantial drug culture. The number of drug-related

crimes is small; one city detective

said he has made only one arrest in

his career for cocaine and has never

seen crack.

Lodi has an extraordinary spirit of

volunteerism. Despite its small size,

the city has 180 active neighborhood

watch groups, and this year organized

126 block parties—some of them

large enough to accommodate more

than one group. There are dozens 

of stories about their accomplishments—a car burglar thwarted in one

neighborhood, a thief identified and

arrested in another—but the story

Lodians tell most often is about a 

12-year-old girl who was kidnaped

from her home 5 years ago. More

than 400 people turned up at the

police station offering to help. They

immediately distributed 20,000

fliers, and the girl was recovered

within 21 hours.

Then there are the Volunteer Partners. Nearly 100 seniors over age 50

work regular hours with the police

department, checking cars and houses while residents are on vacation,

delivering evidence to Sacramento,

or driving police cars to a garage for

maintenance. Two disabled seniors

do computer work in the office, and

others handle traffic control or staff

the found property department. On

National Night Out, it was the

Partners who delivered pizzas to the

winners of a radio call-in contest.

The Volunteer Partners program is 

so popular that younger people often

show up at police headquarters 

offering to volunteer and have to be

told they’re not yet old enough.

All of this is the foundation for

National Night Out, said police 

Chief Larry Hansen, who started a

community-policing program 5 years

ago, a year after taking over the

department. “The whole concept of

encouraging neighbors to get to know

each other again is like taking a step

back in time,” he said. “Neighbors

are being neighbors again.”

Each year, Fuhs puts National Night

Out together with $250 from the city,

a grant of a few thousand dollars from

central California law enforcement

agencies, and contributions from

local businesses and hundreds of 

volunteers. She uses McGruff the

crime-fighting dog, seat belt dummies, an electric display board to

promote electrical safety with children—anything available to get a

crime prevention message across.

Banners and posters are hung all

over the city, and block captains post

word of the upcoming event with

door-hangers. This year, Fuhs sent

out a planning newsletter early in the

summer. “The point of National Night

Out,” she reminded her circulation of

3,900, “is to spend the evening outside talking with neighbors. . . .

Talking, communicating, is what

NNO is all about . . . [to] create a

sense of ownership and responsibility

for the safety and welfare of those

who live in the neighborhood.”

On National Night Out, 11 police

officers, the police chief and commander, the mayor, and several city

council members gathered in the

police briefing room at 5:30 p.m. to

get their orders for the evening. Many

officers had volunteered for the duty.

Proud winners of the chalk-drawing contest 

on the 400 block of East Oak Street in Lodi.

Jerry Tyson
18

Bulletin From the Field: Practitioner Perspectives

Fuhs handed out the gifts they 

would distribute: candy for the kids,

engraving pens so adults could mark

their property, and Johnson Wax

products and coupons. Each person

received an itinerary of parties, and

the officers carried “trading cards”

with their signed pictures and a little

information about them on the back.

This year, for the first time, a group of

businesses—the local newspaper, a

bank, a real estate agency, and the

public library—started things off with

a late afternoon National Night Out

party in the central business district.

Organized by Sandy Smith, a reference librarian, she noted that businesses have security concerns, too,

and thus reason to participate. What’s

more important, among the business

people, “We just personally have

these ties now.”

At 7 p.m., Fuhs went on the highway

advisory radio channel and hosted a

safety call-in contest. Callers from

block parties who answered traffic,

safety, and crime prevention questions won a free pizza from one of the

local pizza chains, delivered by a

Volunteer Partner.

Fuhs treasures the stories of commitment to National Night Out: the

block captain who had a heart

attack but still managed to organize

his party; the children who have

moved away from Lodi but return on

National Night Out for a reunion;

and the woman who decided to quit

as block captain and introduced her

successor at the party. Then there

was the time an old boyfriend and

girlfriend lived on the same street

and didn’t know it until they saw

each other at a National Night 

Out celebration.

Eleven neighborhood watch groups

have stories that are longer; they

have been meeting for 10 years or

more. Flo Celley organized her group

on Tahoe Drive and Modock Way for

10 years, winning a plaque posted to

the telephone pole outside her house

for her achievements. More than 30

people from two blocks attended the

night’s events, enjoying an extraordinary potluck dinner. This year was

Celley’s swan song, and she was anxious for everyone to get connected

with Deborah Cameron, a younger

woman who was taking on the job.

Cameron has personal experience

with the power of neighborliness;

when her home burned down earlier

this year, she turned to the people in

her block for help. “We’re not nosy,

but we’re real concerned about each

other,” she said.

For Det. Brian Scott, traveling from

party to party and chatting with people was very much business as

usual. “I do this anyway,” said

Scott, who grew up in Lodi, moved

away, and then moved back in

1979. “It lets people know we’re

just regular people, too, but with a

different job. This makes it easier

for them to approach you.”

Across town on the 400 block of East

Oak Street, 21 adults, 14 teenagers,

and 35 children were eating all 

types of foods. The block includes

Hispanic, East Indian, German, Irish,

Japanese, and Chinese residents, and

almost everyone brought a dish to

share. The children busied themselves with a chalk-drawing contest,

while some adults served as judges

and others discussed concerns about 

possible drug dealing in a house on

the next block.

Block captain Joanne Mounce has

been working for 7 years to clean

things up. The house she moved into

in 1994 had been the home of a drug

dealer. Across the street, another

dealer was running a profitable 

business. Through the neighborhood

watch group she helped establish,

residents pressured the landlord and

he eventually sold the house.

Recently, a young family moved in.

“When people move in we visit them

and give them neighborhood watch

material, and bring them into what we

consider a family,” Mounce said.

Lodi Police Chief Larry Hansen during his tour of neighborhood watch groups.

Jerry Tyson
National Night Out

19

Notes

1. Sampson, R.J., S.W. Raudenbush,

and F. Earls, “Neighborhoods and

Violent Crime: A Multilevel Study 

of Collective Efficacy.” Science

277(August 15, 1997): 918–924. 

NCJ 173119.

2. Personal interview, September

1999.

For More Information 

For more information about National

Night Out, contact:

National Association of Town 

Watch, Inc.

P.O. Box 303

Wynnewood, PA 19096

610–649–7055

World Wide Web:

http://www.nationaltownwatch.org/

nno.html

For more information about the

Bureau of Justice Assistance

Practitioner Perspectives Series,

contact:

Bureau of Justice Assistance

810 Seventh Street NW.

Washington, DC 20531

202–514–5947

To order publications or to find out

more about BJA programs, contact:

Bureau of Justice Assistance

Clearinghouse

P.O. Box 6000

Rockville, MD 20849–6000

1–800–688–4252

E-mail: askncjrs@ncjrs.org

World Wide Web: http://www.ncjrs.org

Clearinghouse staff are available

Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to

7:30 p.m. eastern time. Ask to be

placed on the BJA mailing list.

Police Commander Jerry Adams was

one of the block’s visitors that night,

giving most residents “the only direct

contact most people have with city

officials,” Mounce noted.

“I think this makes a huge difference,” said Adams. “The more 

[we] open lines of communication, 

the more we can do our job.

Neighborhood Watch is one of 

the truest forms of community policing. . . . You have [to have] successful

Neighborhood Watch programs before

National Night Out works.”

By the end of the evening, with a

handful of parties still carrying on,

Fuhs was tired but satisfied. “I love

the program,” she said. “I believe in

it because the people embrace it.”

Conclusion

In each of these cities and in thousands of others across the country,

National Night Out has become an

occasion symbolizing what can 

happen when citizens take responsibility for the well-being of their

neighborhoods instead of looking

entirely to outside authorities to

enforce public safety. It creates situations for citizens and police to

forge partnerships that help protect

communities.

But the benefits go well beyond these

formal relationships. At a time when

modern pressures tend to keep

neighbors isolated from one another,

National Night Out gives them an

opportunity to reconnect, to feel part

of a community to which they can

contribute and from which they can

draw support and assistance. These

connections generate a sense of 

ownership and responsibility within

neighborhoods, critical elements in

a strong crime prevention program.

NCJ 180775

The Bureau of Justice Assistance

is a component of the Office of

Justice Programs, which also

includes the Bureau of Justice

Statistics, the National Institute 

of Justice, the Office of Juvenile

Justice and Delinquency

Prevention, and the Office 

for Victims of Crime.