At 20th National Night Out, safety is kids’ stuff
Tom Forquer
As part of the 20th annual National Night Out, the Newport Beach
Police Department and some of the community it serves converged on
Mariner’s Park on Tuesday for a fun and informative event.
The event was “mostly geared toward child safety,” Lt. John Kline
said.
Children participated in the McGruff Safety Club and learned about
strangers, street safety and the 911 service from Officer Rachel Hall
as the brown crime fighting dog gave reinforcing nods. The parents
were given fingerprinting kits.
Hall said that the goal of the National Night Out is to “to get
the community together and show them a little bit of the Police
Department and what we do.”
“I discovered that they use that to find out where you are calling
from when you dial 911,” said 6-year-old Colin Duffy of Newport
Beach, pointing to the mobile command post truck with one hand while
holding a complimentary Carl’s Jr. hamburger in the other.
Also present were several members of the S.W.A.T. team. Their van
and some of their tools were on display. Children got to try on some
of their gas masks and the heavy bulletproof vests and helmets.
“Seeing police in this environment makes kids more likely to
approach us when they need help,” Kline said.
There were also carnival games run by the department’s Explorers,
a police youth group.
Nouhad Captan, an 18-year-old explorer from Huntington Beach, said
he felt that community events such as National Night Out help
strengthen relations between children and the Police Department.
When he does ride-alongs with police officers, “the kids are
always waving,” he said. “It’s nice to know that they look up to us
in that way.”
The Costa Mesa Police Department hosted Night Out activities at
two locations -- Shalimar Drive and Placentia Avenue; and El Camino
and Mendoza drives.
* TOM FORQUER is a Daily Pilot intern. He can be reached at
tom.forquer@latimes.com.
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