By Kevin Johnson
Mayor of Sacramento
Go back generations, and the foundation of public safety has not changed. It’s all about neighbors looking out for neighbors.
Police work has become a modern science with training and equipment that would amaze a cop who walked a beat 30 years ago.
But the eyes and ears of neighbors are still the most powerful tools to keep a community safe.
National Night Out is one of my favorite annual activities. It allows me to visit five neighborhoods with police and city officials and celebrate the citizens who are really the backbone of public safety.
Those citizens don’t have police training and special equipment. They aren’t expected to make arrests and take the place of professional police officers. But they have something more important:
Neighbors have the knowledge and understanding of what is right and wrong on every street in Sacramento. They know when a garage door should not be open, when youngsters belong in a backyard, when a barking dog is cause for alarm.
We need alert neighbors more than ever in Sacramento. Crime is trending up. Shootings have increased by 19 percent over last year. The murder rate, historically low last year, is moving in the wrong direction.
National Night Out is not just about slowing the rising trend of major crime. It’s about the smaller details, about knocking out sparks that can explode into tragedies.
Last week, police prevented two burglaries because neighbors alerted authorities after seeing signs of trouble. You don’t need a criminal justice degree to know bad guys look for softer targets when they know neighbors are watching out for each other.
On National Night Out, our team will visit North Natomas, Robla, Swanson Estates, Freeport Park and Golf Course Terrace. We will meet with some of the more than 90 neighborhood watch groups in Sacramento.
An unwavering commitment to public safety has been a top priority of the Mayor’s Office. But effective public safety doesn’t stop with council members or police officers. It requires neighbors to look out for neighbors.
National Night Out is a reminder that there’s nothing more important for a community than the attention we pay to each other.
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