National Night Out, a nationwide series of events intending to promote community-police relations, will come to Verde Valley communities in October.
The Camp Verde Marshal’s Office hosts its event on Thursday, Oct. 9 from 5 to 8 p.m. at 410 Camp Lincoln Road.
The event means to provide fun interactions with law enforcement officers in the communities of those offices.
“Neighborhoods host block parties, festivals, parades, cookouts and various other community events with safety demonstrations, seminars, youth events, visits from emergency personnel, exhibits,” the National Night Out website states.
None of the police departments from Sedona, Cottonwood or Camp Verde technically participated in National Night Out, which is scheduled for the first Tuesday in August each year.
But keeping with its spirit, they each have events planned for the first part of October.
“This has been something we’ve done every year in October, just because it’s so hot in August and we don’t want to do it and no one else wants to either,” Sgt. Dustin Richardson said.
In previous years, the Camp Verde High School Cowboys football team and cheer squad have made appearances along with other high-schoolers and children.
“There’s a lot of kids,” Richardson said. “That’s the best part, seeing these kids talking all these folks, and they’re involved in law enforcement, and we’re also educating a lot of these little guys and gals on … the things that we have to deal with that we don’t want to see them involved in our careers.”
To help with the education part, but also to build the atmosphere around a family friendly environment, many vendors will be there.
“We’re going have … the DPS [Department of Public Safety] explosive ordinance disposal team out there,” Richardson said. “Juvenile probation is going to be there. Yavapai Family Advocacy Center will be there. We’ll have a dunk tank set up so we can dunk a cop. We have a guy that’s like, super-committed to getting dunked every year.”
“I actually put in for Arizona Cardinals’ Big Red and some cheerleaders this year,” he said. “We’ll see if that pans out.” During the beginning ceremonies, the national anthem will be paired with a historic airplane flyover, he said.
There’s a pilot who lives nearby who’s done the flyover for the past three years or so.
“He’s got a Korean War era plane that he flies over … the event for the national anthem,” Richardson said.
He said the event can be chaotic in the beginning, especially during setup, but he is always astounded by the number of people who keep filing in throughout the event.
“Had to have 1,000 people last year, I think,” he said.
