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.