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Neighbors get to know each other to fight crime
Sunnyvale participates in National Night Out
By Joann Liao
Good neighbors can be important. Not just for the occasional loan of power tools, but as a potential deterrent to crime.
This principle will be in action next Tuesday evening when Columbia Avenue residents gather in their street to meet neighbors as part of the National Night Out program.
"The idea is that you get to know your neighbors, so you know who belongs and who doesn't belong," said Dori Fontaine, community services officer with the Sunnyvale Crime Prevention Unit.
More than 9,400 communities nationwide will take part in the 16th annual National Night Out on Aug. 3 from 7 to 9 p.m. The event is sponsored by the National Association of Town Watch in conjunction with regional public-safety departments.
Locally, the city of Sunnyvale will be funding the event, which targets a different area every year. This year--Sunnyvale's first in the program--the city chose the North Fair Oaks area because it mainly contains apartment buildings, and the residents do not really know each other, according to Fontaine. "In this particular area of [the] community, the people come home and go inside," Fontaine said.
To publicize the event in the area, the officers with the crime prevention unit sent out 300 door-to-door fliers and intend to stop by homes and apartments to speak to people personally about the event, according to Fontaine.
The theme for this year's National Night Out is a farewell party for crime and drugs. "It's a community social for residents in that area," Fontaine said. "It's going to look like a celebration."
At the event, public safety officers will be available to speak with people about crime prevention. Community service representatives from other agencies will also have booths at the event, including Sunnyvale Community Services, the Columbia Neighborhood Center and the Sunnyvale Recycling Center. The canine unit might show up. The city also hopes to have a mobile health screening center set up. Radio station KSOL plans to attend. Balloon animals and ice cream will be passed out.
"Hopefully we can do this every year," Fontaine said.
According to the National Association of Town Watch officials, more than 32 million people will participate in this year's event. "National Night Out is a powerful demonstration of neighborhood unity and police-community partnerships," said Matt Peskin, national project coordinator and creator of the project.
The National Association of Town Watch was founded in 1981, a non-profit crime prevention organization that works in cooperation with thousands of crime watch groups and law enforcement agencies throughout the country. The first National Night Out was introduced early in 1984.
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Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
