National Night Out, “America’s Night Out Against Crime”, was introduced by the National Association of Town Watch in 1984. Most of the country celebrates National Night Out in August, but Texas and some of our other Southern neighbors got permission to move the annual celebration to October in hopes of cooler weather.

The program was the brainchild of Executive Director Matt A. Peskin. In an effort to heighten awareness and strengthen participation in local anticrime efforts, Peskin proposed a national program which would be coordinated by local crime prevention agencies and organizations - but that would involve entire communities at one time. The first National Night Out was held in 1984 on the first Tuesday in August. That first year, 400 communities in 23 states participated in National Night Out, some 2.5 million Americans. The event has since grown to involve more than 37 million people in over 15,000 communities from all 50 states, U.S. territories, Canadian cities, and military bases worldwide in 2011.

The National Night Out program suggests a 7:00-10:00 p.m. time period, but you may adjust the start or end times to meet the needs of your block or group. If you are interested in hosting a gathering, email your name, address, and contact info to gocop77018@aol.com or constable@gardenoaks.org so that one of the constables stops by your event. You may want to publicize your gathering on the Garden Oaks Facebook page or Yahoo group site. For more information and a wealth of resources, visit the official National Night Out web page at www.natw.org.