2012 National Night Out Fun For All
The Hemet Police Department, in conjunction with Dominium Apartments, participated in the 2012 National Night Out campaign on August 7th at 700 Arbor Parkway in Hemet. Hemet Police Department displayed one of its armored SWAT vehicles. Officers, police volunteers, and police explorers manned informational booths with handouts, coloring books, and fingerprint kits for children.
Miss Teen Hemet, Amanda Christine Stewart, and the Hemet Police K-9 team of Officer Patrick Long with his canine partner, Niko were among the special guests who took photos with kids and took part in ‘Taking back the night.’
Hemet Police Chief Dave Brown said, “Anytime we can take a few hours to promote neighborhood spirit and police-community partnerships, we are all over it. The apartment manager Kay really did a great job here tonight.”
Kay Villareal contacted Hemet Police several months ago and coordinated the event which resulted in about 100 neighborhood residents taking part in a water balloon toss, raffles, refreshments, poster coloring, and other fun-filled games. One of the residents created a home-made poster that displayed known sexual predators in the area with information taken from the Megan’s Law and CrimeReports.com web-sites.
Hemet Police K-9 Niko mingled with the children after putting on a demonstration and families took turns taking photos with officers and the HPD SWAT vehicle, funded by Homeland Security.