“The whole object their is its a great time for our police department, our officers to get out, interact with our community on a very specific night but the other object here is to get our neighborhoods together, people spend time with their neighbors, get to know each other because at the end of the day when people are living near each other they can look out for each other as well,” said Police Chief Chris Olson.
The city had more than 130 registered parties last year and this year the numbers were record breaking with 147.
“So it is a lot and that means we’re getting the word out, neighborhoods are getting together and its making a difference,” said Olson.
Police officers make a shared effort to visit all of the parties. A new social media aspect was added this year to take pictures with officers and post them to expand the impact. The Police Department finds socializing especially important to connect with the community.
“The officers are out day in and day out dealing with calls for service, taking care of people, responding to medicals and accidents, but it’s so important to have this night where they can have an interaction they wouldn’t normally have. Going out and talking with people is great. You don’t get to see all these people all the time and you get to see the neighborhoods together. We just talked to some people here tonight that were in the neighborhood for three years all the way to 30-40 plus years, all that time difference makes a good solid neighborhood and it’s great to see,” said Olson.
The parties are filled with plenty of food and fun. City Council member Jason King held the Crescent Ponds neighborhood party and it was his first year hosting. “It looks like we brought around 100 people here tonight. A lot of kids as you can see. We just wanted to get everybody together because we know a lot of neighbors but we don’t know everybody so this is a good chance to invite everybody, hopefully get a chance to know some of the new people that have moved in and some of the people who have lived here for a while we just don’t know yet,” said King.
Blaine is a growing city and having a night for residents old and new to gather is a unique way to both build relationships and help eliminate crime. The goal is that the bonding continues past the first Tuesday in August every year. “It’s very important because Blaine being over 60,000 people, a lot of new people here, it’s easy just to get in your rut, really not get to know your neighborhoods. It’s nice to know your neighbors, you can watch out for each other, watch out for people’s kids while they’re playing and so we get a chance to know each other and have fun with each other,” said King. Night to Unite brought together community neighborhoods across the city and as a larger initiative National Night Out across the state and country has been viewed as a success by both residents and police departments.
“The weather definitely helps a lot but I still think we’d have those events, people would hold them in their garages and people get together. I just really enjoy the fact that everyone gets together to share food, share good times and get to know each other better than they do already,” said Olson. For more information on Night to Unite click here and pictures from the night here.
