Perry-area youngsters with a taste for flashing lights and blaring sirens have fun in store at the Perry Police Department’s third annual Police Night Out, scheduled for Tuesday Aug. 7 from 5-7 p.m.in the parking lot of the Perry Hy-Vee.
“Kids will get to visit with our police, sit in a police car and try to dunk an officer in the dunk tank,” said Hy-Vee Community Events Coordinator Larry Vodenik. “The Hy-Vee KidsFit crew will also be on hand, with fun and free activities for the kids. The KidsFit main event will be at 6 p.m.”
Begun in 1984 by the National Association of Town Watch, the annual community-police awareness-raising event is held the first Tuesday of August, with the object of making neighborhoods safer, better places to live.
Perry Police Chief Eric Vaughn said he enjoyed the opportunity to host last year’s event, which helped bolster relationships within the community.
“This is a great chance for us to meet with people, especially kids, and let them know a little bit about us and what we do,” Vaughn said.
The youngsters are clearly the stars of the show at the Police Night Out event.
“This is so important,” said Perry Police Department Detective Laura Deaton. “We want children to know that the loud noises are not scary and that we are just like them — we like to laugh and be playful and do things just like they do. It is important for the kids to see us as people, as someone they know, someone they can trust.”
Deaton, now in her sixth year on the Perry force, said face-to-face interactions with school children were invaluable.
“They need to know we are not just loud noises or someone who is going to put someone in jail,” she said. “Doing things like this gives them a chance to laugh and smile with us and see we are regular people, and this is just our job.”
