National Night Out '08 Draws Record Crowd

CRISFIELD-Organizers of The Crisfield annual "National Night Out" event, held at the Somers Cove Marina drew possibly the largest crowd in the 7-year history of the event in Crisfield with an estimated 350 attendees. The Crisfield Police Department organizes National Night Out as an annual event in conjunction with the National Association of Town Watch (NATW), (http://www.nationaltownwatch.org), and is funded solely through donations from the community. According to NATW, The event is designed to "Heighten drug and crime prevention awareness, generate support for, and partic- ipation in local crime programs, strengthen neighborhood spirit and police-community partner- ships, and send a message to criminals to let them know that neighborhoods are organized and fighting back." Also, according to NATW, last year's national campaign drew participation not only from law-enforcement, but from civic groups, the business sector, neighborhood organizations, and local officials from over 10,000 communities from all 50 states, U.S. territories, Canadian cities, and military bases worldwide, with over 35 million participants. According to Crisfield Police Departmant 1st Sgt. Stanley Harmon, the main accomplishment of this event is "...just the fact that we can communicate with the citizens of Crisfield...giving them[the public] a chance to meet us 'up close, and in person' " and "let them see that we're not always the bad guys...they see us driving the cars, answering calls or chasing people, and it gives them the chance to ask us questions"they get a chance to sit down with us and have a hot dog or a hamburger..." Tonight's event featured free hot dogs, hamburgers, ice cream, door prizes, and a DJ, and was, what appeared to be a big success.

Video: Chief Tabor and officer Luedtke "doin' da bump"
http://www.vidiLife.com/index.cfm?f=media.play&vchrMediaProgramIDCryp=19F5EFF4-0E7C-44D6-BC58-C


Text, Imaging, and Video (C) 2008 Ben Evans