National Night Out: La Verne Police Department Knows How to Draw a Crowd

Would you like mustard and relish with your hot dog? Servers, from left, were Police Captain Darryl Seube, Councilwoman Robin Carder, Councilwoman Donna Nasmyth and Police Chief Scott Pickwith.

The La Verne Police Department is boasting some impressive new statistics:

 “We’ve already given away more than 700 hot dogs in two hours,” said La Verne Police Chief Scott Pickwith who was working the hot dog booth along with La Verne Fire Chief John Breaux and Council members Donna Nasymth and Robin Carder as part of “National Night Out Against Crime” held in the Target Shopping Center, Aug. 4.

The turnout was excellent. Local residents were drawn not only to the free hot dogs and snow cones, but also lots of games, rides and special attractions, including a balloon artist, a dunk tank and a place to zip around in miniature Air Force jets.

“It looks like we had an even better turnout than we had last year,” Pickwith said. “We did a little more advertising this year, and Target has been a great partner in this whole venture.”

Residents seemed to enjoy seeing their local police officers letting their hair down and having fun right alongside them.

Michael Mata was one child who got into the spirit of the night, sporting his T-shirt, "Don't Need a Permit for These Guns."

“This is an outreach program to promote public safety in the community,” Pickwith said. “It gives us an opportunity to talk to people on a more informal basis, so we can really get to know them and they can get to know us a little better outside the uniform.”

And there was no shortage of law enforcement personnel to meet.

“We have a lot of our special assignments here tonight,” Pickwith added. “Our SWAT team, the Air Support, our Motor Traffic Division, and of course, our Community Services Division.”

At the rate hot dogs were being handed out last night, there could be a temporary frankfurter shortage in town this morning. To be temporarily short a few sausages, however, seems a small price to pay for a wonderful night out that celebrated La Verne’s law enforcement teams and promoted greater awareness of our public safety and neighborhood unity.

LVPD’s Raphael Giles makes a big splash at La Verne’s National Night Out.