ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Tuesday is National Night Out. It’s a time for neighbors to come together and to bridge the gap with law enforcement.

In Albuquerque alone, there are more than 30 national night out events happening. The Raynolds Addition Neighborhood is having their National Night Out celebration from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at Bennie Hargrove Park.

Albuquerque police and Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office deputies will be at various events around the metro to meet the people they’re serving and form connections outside of an emergency.

Most events also have free food and activities for children too. But while this is just one night, APD and BCSO know forming relationships take time. They both believe work needs to be done year round.

BCSO Deputy Deanna Aragon pointed out, it’s also a chance for neighbors to see who they are behind the badge.

“It’s an opportunity for them to see us outside of our normal workday, kind of engaging with kids and showing them like, ‘Hey, we’re normal human beings. We like to do the same things that you like to do.’ Then just showing them things that they might have concerns about. A lot of kids are always asking about our equipment, they ask us to see our patrol cars,” said Aragon. 

Aragon says they’ve also created a community engagement team to make sure they’re having events with the community year round to get to know them and hear their concerns.

APD Public Information Officer Franchesca Perdue says rebuilding trust with the community has been a priority for years now.

“Going out to different community events, not just for national night out, but through our work with the Department of Justice, we’ve done a lot of rebuilding that trust and opening up those lines of communication, where we have officers who attend neighborhood meetings regularly. We have district coalition meetings with our city councilors, and so we go out there, we try to hear the concerns even amongst like our businesses,” said Perdue. 

The New Mexico Black Leadership Council will also hold a National Night Out celebration. Not only that, but they’re also launching the “IDEAS” network or the International District Engagement and Support Network.

Marcus Porter with the NMBLC says they wanted to not only bridge the gap between neighbors and law enforcement but also connect the community to local businesses.

“We wanted to develop a network for them so that they could rely on each other, we could kind of come together in times of joy and sorrow and have like somewhat of a unified voice for people driving some economic development, things like that. We thought, well, what better time than a day centered around communities coming together and working in that vein,” said Porter. 

The IDEAS network will link local businesses to resources, offer a support network and organize community events to promote the businesses.

South Los Altos Park is having its National Night Out at Daniel Webster Memorial Park from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m..

KOB 4 spoke to a resident from there, John Hooker. He says, he’s excited to connect with his neighbors.

“Since we don’t sit on our front porches anymore, and we sit on our in front of our computers and our TVs all night long. We don’t watch people in the neighborhood, we don’t get to know our neighbors. So this is a way to build that kind of relationship,” said Hooker. 

Hooker says he’s also looking forward to making those connections but hopes they’ll come out for more than just one night.

“They’re here for one night. Maybe they come to a neighborhood association meeting once, once a month. But there are so many other things to talk about, you’ve got city parks, you’ve got Solid Waste, you’ve got storm water, Water Utility Authority, all kinds of issues, maintenance of streets. So police are just another piece of the puzzle of being civically engaged and participating,” said Hooker. 

For more information on all of the National Night Out locations, click here.