National Night Out
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National Night Out is a community-police awareness-raising event in the US, held the first Tuesday of August. Texas has the option to use the alternate date of the first Tuesday in October to avoid hot weather.
The event has been held annually since 1984 and is sponsored by the National Association of Town Watch in the United States and Canada.
The event is meant to increase awareness about police programs in communities, such as drug prevention, town watch, neighborhood watch, and other anti-crime efforts.
The events are typically organized by block watches, non-for-profit organizations, companies, and police departments. These events can be as simple as backyard cookouts to full blown festivals like the one on the west side of Columbus, Ohio. The Ogden Block Watch in Columbus organizes one of the largest of these type of Night Out festivals which include live music, food, and entertainment.