CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The Corpus Christi Police Department's hosted a National Night Out kickoff party at the Coorpus Christi Academy Sports and Outdoors location Tuesday night.
Several CCPD officers were there with their patrol units and SWAT vehicles. The event featured free Weinerschnitzel hot dogs and Blue Bell ice cream.
Corpus Christi police Lt. Brad Pici said before the event that the department hoped the festivities encouraged citizens to work with police and take a stand against crime.
"This is the opportunity for the police department and the citizens to forge partnerships," he said. "We don't ever want to present that it's 'us and them' or "us and the citizens.' It's a unified project. The only way we're going to change crime is for the police and citizens to work together."
Senior Officer Lolo Cantu, an organizer is tomorrow's event, agreed.
"I think people have this misconception about us that we're different from the community," Cantu said. "No, we're in the same community. We work for the same people. We protect the same people."
National Night Out began in 1984, with 2.5 million neighbors across 400 communities in 23 states taking part. It started with neighbors turning on their front porch lights to send a message that they were standing up to crime. The front-porch vigils quickly grew into large neighborhood celebrations.
