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National Night Out

National Night Out

Tuesday evening [August 7], police departments across the nation, including in Charlottesville and Harrisonburg, will try to foster a sense of community with the neighborhoods they police.  WMRA’s Christopher Clymer Kurtz reports.

Harrisonburg and Charlottesville are among the localities hoping to build relationships between police and community members during National Night Out.

In Harrisonburg, a convoy of city officials and police will start at City Hall at 5:00 and then make stops at six neighborhood get-togethers and cookouts until after 8:00, said Sergeant Charles Grubbs.

SERGEANT CHARLES GRUBBS: Our city is very diverse, so we try to go to different regions of the city.

City officials and the new police chief Eric English, who takes office in September, will be on the convoy to meet community members, said Grubbs.

GRUBBS: We’re there to listen and learn, and hopefully they listen and learn as much as we get. So if something bad happens, they’re not afraid to call us.

Charlottesville has planned its own Charlottesville Night Out, with free barbecue and pizza, a dunk tank and face painting and more, said Sergeant Robert Haney.

SERGEANT ROBERT HANEY: After last year, we really wanted to make this night especially, all about Charlottesville, and you know, all the neighbors and the city agencies and regional partners really coming together, really just to show that the city of Charlottesville can accomplish and overcome anything together. We’re not individual agencies, we’re a community.

The Charlottesville event will take place from 5:30 to 8:30 in the Ix Art Park.

For WMRA News, I’m Christopher Clymer Kurtz.

Christopher Clymer Kurtz was a freelance journalist for WMRA from 2015 - 2019.