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08/21/2019 08:41 AMThe Guilford Police Department went out on the town last week.
As part of the National Night Out program, which seeks to foster engagement between law enforcement and their local communities, men and women from police and fire departments joined about 200 local residents on Aug. 13 on the Guilford Green to dance, compete in games, and enjoy good food.
“The ability to interact with both the police and the fire department in a very positive way—very approachable—people were just very happy and appreciative that they could do that,” said Guilford Deputy Police Chief Warren Hyatt.
First introduced in 1984, the National Night Out spread quickly across the United States, and is now celebrated in more than 16,000 communities, according to the organization’s website. Hyatt said the event originally focused on larger cities, and has also served as an alternative destination for young folks who might be at risk of doing something “less constructive.”
Having a chance to just relax and spend time with the residents they serve, Hyatt said, was the highlight of the night, and also encapsulated the spirit and purpose of police in their communities.
“We’re lucky here in Guilford. We have a really great relationship with the community,” said Hyatt. “[This] culture and environment, as a police department...it’s really what we do every day.”
Hyatt said the event was designed to have something for people of all ages and interests, with candy-guessing games and a bounce house for kids, a raffle for Yankees tickets, and dance contests and sack races for the more outgoing types.
“It didn’t matter if you were two years old, or 80 years old,” said Hyatt. “You could participate.”
This was Guilford’s first time participating in the national event. Its success, particularly with younger people, can be at least partially attributed to Officer Scott Gingras, who did much of the organizing and found himself acting as a sort of promoter for most of the night.
“I was really excited, and I kind of just took it upon myself to be the emcee,” said Gingras. “The DJ company could have provided one, but I kind of wanted to really get into it. I like doing it, and I have experience with it.”
Before becoming a police officer, Gingras said he had worked as a professional D.J.; a lot of his work was at school field days, sweet 16 parties, and children’s birthday parties. Hyatt credited Gingras not only for doing a lot of preparatory tasks—acquiring permits, coordinating with the town, and other paperwork—but even more for building a rapport and keeping people engaged and entertained throughout the night.
Whether it was getting people on the dance floor, handing out party favors to kids, or leading the way to the next sack race, Gingras was there, Hyatt said.
“Scot really did a great job with emceeing, and really running that event to keep people engaged,” Hyatt said.
“It was just really cool,” said Gingras. “I like doing stuff like that.”
As the night began to wrap up, Gingras said he had a number of people approach him to thank him, and express their interest in keeping the annual event going.
“Obviously that’s a chief decision,” said Gingras, “that he has to make, if we have the funds to do an event like that again, but I hope we do.”
Gingras said donations and volunteers were able to defray the cost of the event. He said he would be happy to serve as emcee again, if Guilford participates next year.
Most important, both Hyatt and Gingras said, is that the police and the community continue to build trust in one another, not just on one night, but every day.
“Going forward,” said Hyatt, “for the community is know and understand that you can come up and talk to a police officer. We’re to help you...We can’t do this alone; we have to work together.”