National Night Out

National Night Out is an annual community-building event that promotes police-community partnerships and neighborhood camaraderie, enhancing the relationship between neighbors and law enforcement while fostering Redwood City's sense of community.

The event traces back to 1981, when Matt Peskin, a volunteer with the Lower Merion Community Watch program near Philadelphia, founded the National Association of Town Watch (NATW) to help neighborhood watch groups across the country connect and share resources. Three years later, in August 1984, that network launched the first National Night Out, drawing an estimated 2.5 million participants across 400 communities in 23 states. What began as a simple idea has grown into one of the largest community-safety events in the country, now reaching tens of millions of people in thousands of communities nationwide each year.

Neighborhoods host block parties, festivals, and cookouts featuring safety demonstrations, seminars, youth activities, visits from emergency personnel, exhibits, and more. It's a chance for residents to meet the officers and firefighters who serve their area in a relaxed, informal, neighborhood setting: helping ease the sense of isolation that can come with concerns about local crime, and building the everyday familiarity between residents and public safety personnel that makes neighborhoods stronger.

In Redwood City, participating neighborhoods across the city host their own gatherings each year on the same evening, giving residents a chance to celebrate community and safety together, block by block.

For more information on National Night Out, including how to get your neighborhood involved, please reach out via the Contact Us page.