For the third year, the Guilford Police Department (GPD) will be participating in the National Night Out (NNO) program on Tuesday, July 27 from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. on the green, an initiative meant to allow officers a chance to make more personal connections with the communities they police.

Claiming 16,000 participating communities, including 21 in Connecticut, NNO has sought to create more trusting, more resilient police-community connections mostly through an annual celebration, often a block party, parade, or similar public event. GPD first joined the movement in 2019, and even ran a smaller event last October during the height of the pandemic.

With emcee services provided once again by GPD Officer Scott Gingras, who actually works as a professional D.J. on the side and has also hosted the two previous NNO events, GPD is offering music, dancing, food, a fog machine, a T-shirt cannon, and plenty of family-focused contests and prizes.

“Pretty regularly we experience people’s worst day with them,” said Sergeant Martina Jakober, who is overseeing this year’s NNO party. “This provides us an opportunity to be a part of the community in a positive way, on a positive day, at a positive point in their life.”

The event is also free and open to anyone, not just Guilford residents.

Apart from the fun and lighthearted activities, the NNO is also being used as a chance to reach the community in other important ways, with the Guilford Health Department running a vaccine clinic, information on Internet safety, and participation from the Guilford Fire Department.

The main goal, though, is just to give everyone a chance to spend some relaxed, personal time with the people whose job is to serve their community in some very difficult circumstances, according to Jakober.

“It’s just a lot of fun stuff,” she said.

Gingras said he was recently recognized by a resident during his regular police work, who bragged that he had beaten Gingras in a hula-hoop contest the previous year.

“I think that it’s really important to do events like this just because a lot of times we get kind of busy with calls and all these different cases...but the community stuff is just as important,” he said. “Having families and kids see in this kind of non-threatening fun environment shows that we’re just like regular people.”

Gingras said this kind of approach really fits into that community aspect of policing, and being able to dedicate time and energy to a sack race or freeze-tag is personally very fulfilling to him.

He was also able to leverage some of his connections in the entertainment world, recruiting some professional Disney princesses from the D.J. company for which he works to join in the festivities.

“They said they’d donate their time—not sure who they’re going to be yet, but some recognizable Disney princesses,” he laughed.

Food is being provided by Naples Pizza, with plenty of other food trucks showing up to offer a variety of treats, according to Jakober.

Though the activities are fun, the purpose of the event is very serious. In the wake of the national reckoning on policing that began last summer, many law enforcement agencies across the country have been confronted with shortfalls in community relations and dealt with significant criticism.

Jakober said she doesn’t feel like the GPD has had the same issues with their community as larger departments have.

“Not to say that there aren’t any problems, but...we have a very healthy dialogue with the community,” she said.

From that perspective, the NNO has a dual purpose, Jakober said, allowing GPD officers to receive some empathy and understanding from the community even as they are also offering it, with hopefully everyone coming to a place where they see each other as neighbors.

“To have fun with each other is such a positive thing in all of our lives- not only just for the community, but for us,” she said.