National Night Out was best in nation again
By: Staff 12/01/2005
For the fourth time in five years Minneapolis National Night Out (NNO) was ranked as the best in the nation. The honor was bestowed by the National Association of Town Watch (NATW), the national NNO coordinators. Judging was based on factors such as the overall quality of the campaign, citizen and law enforcement involvement, and the extent and quality of media coverage.
The Community Crime Prevention/SAFE (CCP/SAFE) unit of the Minneapolis Police Department coordinates Minneapolis NNO. John Baumann, CCP/SAFE Central Operations Manager, said, “The real heroes of this #1 award are the more than 46,000 neighbors who voluntarily put together and turned out to 841 events involving more than 1650 blocks. That’s over 12 percent of the city’s population and our best turnout in years. Despite the heat on August 2, there were lots of cool things happening all over the city.”
Target Corporation and the Minnesota Twins were major supporters of Minneapolis’ NNO. More than 50 small businesses also contributed to the effort. The Mayor’s office and City Council, the entire Police department, the Fire Department, Public Works, Communications, Video Services, Elections and the Copy Center all contributed.
A new relationship with the Minneapolis Public Library resulted in some literacy-based block activities and helped get the word out for NNO. Time IN for Families developed new ways to involve youth in NNO and in year-round block club activities.
This year was the 22nd Annual National Night Out. It is the largest community-building crime-prevention event in the world with more than 10,700 communities and 34 million people from all 50 states participating. For info on NNO or starting a block club contact 612-673-3568 or ccpsafe@ci.minneapolis.mn.us.