National Night Out a chance for community bonding

The architects behind this year’s National Night Out, a countrywide police event that’s fully free to members of the public, want Warwick’s version of the event at Oakland Beach next Tuesday night to provide a new way of interacting with police than residents of the city might normally be accustomed to.

Officer Mark Jandreau, who is spearheading the event from the police side, said the night aims to promote a police-community partnership.

“Basically it’s a community-based event trying to build relationships with the community, letting the public interact with police in a much calmer environment where we’re not giving you a ticket or arresting you,” Jandreau said.  “It enhances relationships between law enforcement and people in the community.”

He said that when he joined the Warwick police force, many residents didn’t want to have any interaction with the police, but now there’s a different community that is “more willing to call” the police when they see something happening or need them to help out.

“It wasn’t always like that,” he said.  “We’re very fortunate in Warwick we’ve got a great community who generally likes the Warwick police department, loves the work we’re doing, and that makes our jobs easier.”

He said that National Night Out is done with police departments all across the country and is very first-responder oriented, as members from the fire department, the national guard, the Department of Environmental Management and a number of police groups, including the K-9 officers and motorcyclists, will all be there to interact with the community.

“It’s really a family event,” said Donna Travis, the Councilwoman for Ward 6, which includes Oakland Beach, who has been involved with this event for over 15 years.

Travis reiterated that the entire event, which includes food and drink including hot dogs, pizza, donuts and water bottles, is completely free to members of the public. Jandreau added that the night is not-for-profit and all corporate donations go into it.

Travis said that Target has been a big donor this year, as has the city of Warwick, which is paying for a fireworks show that will take place at 9:00 p.m. Travis did say that if it were to rain Tuesday night, the event would be moved to Wednesday and there would be no fireworks, but she added that the latest forecast she saw calls for clear skies.

In addition to the food, fireworks and first responders, who will have a “touch-a-truck” competition, there will be Warwick staples there like the Boys & Girls Club, the library and the Buckeye Brook Coalition.

“People walking through can learn about their community,” Travis said. “It’s a fun night. Most agencies give something out too.”

For children, who both Jandreau and Travis said they want to focus the event on, there will be a bouncy house, demonstrations from first responders, drummers/dancing and the cheerleaders from both Pilgrim and Toll Gate there to perform.

Travis said in addition to the private and city donations, the event was made possible by the citizens’ police academy and the department’s cadets, which provided volunteers who are helping put everything together for the event. They’ll do the cooking and anything else the night calls for, she said.

Travis said she really wants to showcase the good that both children in the community and the police department are doing.

“Not every kid does something wrong,” she said. “This is a way to showcase that there are a lot of good kids doing good things. I want to make this a night that we can say no to drugs, say no to crime, and we can all get together and get along.”

She also said that there will be a blood drive going on at the event as well, as last year the Rhode Island Blood Center came for the first time and got 11-14 pints, she said, so they wanted to come back and do it again.

The one issue they’ve faced with this event has been how big it’s gotten over the years (Travis said it first started at Oakland Beach 15 years ago). The parking is limited in Oakland Beach and with thousands of people attending, and the event continuously growing, Jandreau said they might have to look into moving it to a bigger venue, such as Rocky Point, in the coming years.

Travis said she’ll get there early in the morning next Tuesday to get things ready, and groups can start setting up their materials anytime after 2:00 p.m.

The event is held on the Oakland Beach commons and runs from 5-9 p.m., concluding with a fireworks display after everyone has eaten, drank and, as Jandreau and Travis hope, built a better relationship with Warwick’s first responders.