Macon Celebrates 29th Annual ‘National Night Out’

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – People all over the country came together to celebrate a national night out against crime on Tuesday. 

Citizens of Macon took part in the 29th annual event.

‘National Night Out’ was started in 1983 by neighborhood watch groups across the country as a night to get out of the house and have some fun with the neighbors.

“But also a way for the neighbors to get to know their law enforcement officers,” says Sgt. Tim James with the Macon Police Department.  “Not only law enforcement.  Firemen, paramedics, and all that take part.  When it comes to actually getting the crime numbers down, it’s teamwork.  It’s the people trusting their police department, trusting their neighborhoods and trusting their neighbor to report those crimes.”

A kick-off event was held on Tuesday night at city hall to start this year’s festivities here in town.

After that, I headed over to Freedom Park for one of the many celebrations taking place in Macon.  They had hot dogs cooking, painting with a local artist for the kids, and even a 3-on-3 basketball tournament going on in the gym. 

The park’s community center supervisor Clarence Thomas says ‘National Night Out’ is all about keeping our youth off the streets.

“We know that the afternoon time–all times of the year–is the toughest and most challenging time of the day for our teens,” says Thomas.  “There’s a lot for them to get into then, and so it was only natural when we had the opportunity to do ‘National Night Out’ here at our center that we do it.  Present it to them, call them in, give them a place to come to where they can be involved with some positive activities tonight.”

“The gym is a good place to be,” says teen Dameon Richburg.  “It’s always a good place to be, whether we’re doing work inside the gym with basketball or just cleaning around the neighborhood helping people, just doing a good job with everything.”

The Macon Police Department estimates around 30 events like the one at Freedom Park took place on Tuesday night with more than 4,000 people participating throughout the city.