Southside’s Kirk Park will have face painting, bounce houses, an ice cream truck and more than 15 police agencies on Tuesday.
But the heavy police presence is less about law enforcement and more about community engagement.
Syracuse Police Department Public Information Officer Lt. Matthew Malinowski said the event is necessary.
“One of the biggest things we’re hearing is that the community wants to get to know the police better. They’re asking for an opportunity to get to know the officers outside of their normal duties, but just walking around to meet the neighbors. The problem is we’re at historically high levels low police officers and the call value hasn’t gone down,” Malinowski said.
Despite the shortage of officers, the force holds its annual National Night Out event to accommodate requests from the community to meet and talk to them casually.
Malinowski said it’s a time for residents to have a completely different experience with police.
“Most of the time when people interact with the police, it’s usually either they’ve been the victim of a crime or some other kind of police matter that we have to investigate, usually a high-stress situation where people are annoying and during those, I don’t really get a chance to make a meaningful connection. So this is an opportunity for people to get out with their families, interact with the police in a positive way, de-stress and have these meaningful interactions,” Malinowski said.
Syracuse has seen a lot of violence in recent years, and Malinowski said this day is also about showing people what they do to help when bad things happen and arrest those responsible.
“I don’t think there are people who understand the amount of work we do in the city, especially if our numbers are small. We get approximately 60,000 calls for service, we investigate multiple homicides, shootings with injuries, robberies,” Malinowski said, “So it’s important for people to understand that the efforts of the men and women of the Syracuse Police Department are what keep crime at bay So you can only imagine if we weren’t there.”
Tuesday’s event will be held at Kirk Park from 4-8pm rain or shine.
