National Night Out returns to Town Park on Aug. 4
The boys in blue will be serving up free hamburgers, hot dogs and activities for National Night Out. The Clarkdale Police Department is hosting the event on Tuesday, Aug. 4, from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Clarkdale Town Park, 1001 Main St. Participating law enforcement agencies include the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office, the Jerome Police Department and the Yavapai Apache Police Department.
“National Night Out is a nationwide program designed to bring communities together on the first Tuesday of August,” Clarkdale Police Chief Randy Taylor said. “Some places in Arizona adopt it later in the year so they don’t have to worry about weather.” Such as the cities of Sedona and Cottonwood. “But we do it at the same time as most of the rest of the nation. We encourage everybody to come out and meet our law enforcement people and our partners, and just work together as a team with our community.”
Typically, about 600 folks come out to NNO, though Taylor said 2025 drew about 800 people. Parking has usually not been an issue.
However, people occasionally have to park about a block out “but I haven’t had anyone ever complain about the parking,” Taylor said.
Some of the highlights for NNO: A Tae Kwon Do demonstration by KC’s Family Tae Kwon Do, YCSO will be bringing several of its Mounted Patrol horses, a dunk tank with the opportunity to get several local educators and first-responders along with the return of a drone demonstration by YCSO.
“CPD uses drones quite frequently,” Taylor said about his department’s program that has been operational for about the last three years, which he anticipates will soon have two certified operators. “If we have somebody who’s run from us from an event — say, domestic violence. We used to determine how bad the flooding was [last week]. We use it for fire, to tell what area might need to be evacuated.”
“It’s the best event of the year,” Taylor said. “It gives us the opportunity to visit with our community. It gives people the opportunity to ask us questions, and it seems like everyone has a really good time. It gives us the opportunity to hear from our community about what they’re concerned about. … and be able to walk up to me or any one of my staff members and just have a conversation.”
Attendees can also support the Clarkdale Police Department by purchasing raffle tickets, with proceeds going directly to the department’s bulletproof vest fund.
