EDWARDSVILLE - National Night Out and the Edwardsville Police fit together like a glove.
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The Edwardsville Police Department recently celebrated National Night Out in Edwardsville City Park and it was well attended by hundreds of families and many children.
Edwardsville Police Chief Jay Keeven beams with pride when he speaks about National Night Out and the efforts of his officers.
National Night Out was established in 1984 with funding from the Bureau of Justice Assistance from the U.S. Department of Justice. National Night Out was developed as a crime prevention program that emphasizes building a partnership between the police and the community.
The Edwardsville Fire Department, Glen Carbon Police, SIUE Police, the Illinois State Police and Madison County Sheriff’s Department all participated in Edwardsville’s Night Out For Crime, along with many others. A First Student School Bus also was there for children to browse. Edwardsville Police’s D.A.R.E. also had strong representation at National Night Out and they organize the event, which is a strong community builder, Keeven said.
“The kids want to look at the fire truck,” Keeven said. “It’s just nice to have other agencies and businesses in town that set up little displays and giveaways for the kids at National Night Out For Crime. It is a nice community engagement event and we are fortunate that one of our D.A.R.E. officers plans and organizes it.”
National Night Out is an annual community-building campaign that promotes police-community partnerships and neighborhood camaraderie to make our neighborhoods safer, better places to live.
“Once again, I have said since I’ve been here, I think we have a great working relationship with our community and we see it getting better,” Chief Keeven said. “We are very fortunate that our crime rate is low and it affords us an opportunity to truly be community caretakers; to truly get out and be a part of this community and know the people that we serve. That’s a positive thing because when we do have crime, and every community does, we have citizens that have faith and trust in their police department and they call us. We solve those crimes very quickly.”
Keeven said the officers in the Edwardsville Police Department are dedicated to serving the community.
“I came to this police department three and a half years ago and I will also say most all of the Metro East law enforcement agencies do a great job of serving their communities,” he said. “I think we do a fantastic job in the community and the National Night Out event is another example.”
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