Yelm Police Department, surrounding agencies, local businesses celebrate National Night Out

National Night Out, an annual community event throughout the United States inspired to strengthen relationships between residents and local law enforcement jurisdictions, was celebrated in Yelm at Yelm City Park on Tuesday, Aug. 4.

Hosting the annual celebration which is designed to promote community camaraderie was the Yelm Police Department and City of Yelm. The hosting parties were accompanied by local agencies Thurston County Sheriff’s Office (TCSO), Washington State Patrol (WSP), Nisqually Indian Police, Thurston County SWAT, and local businesses Yelm Grocery Outlet, Steele Barrel Barbecue, Kona Ice, Living Water Church and Tim’s Pharmacy.

According to Rob Carlson, Yelm Police Chief, the annual National Night Out event has grown into a community favorite over recent years.

“Every year, especially throughout the last four years, this event has gotten bigger and bigger,” Carlson told the Nisqually Valley News during the event. “Obviously, it’s a reflection of how the community and our relationship with the community has grown, as well. The event is getting started right now, but around 5:30 p.m. it’ll start picking up.”

He’s grateful for all of the surrounding agencies who put in the time and effort to attend Yelm’s National Night Out event. Carlson knows that YPD isn’t the biggest agency. Carlson said having the aforementioned agencies work alongside them for the event is cool for all parties involved.

“It gives the community an opportunity to tell us what they see, good or bad. It’s just a great event that’s been established for years now around the country,” Carlson said. “With Line (Roy) coming in and being a super good organizer, she’s made this a super big event for us. It’s one of the biggest events of the year for the police department.”

Above all, Carlson said he’s thankful for the opportunity for his agency to get their boots on the ground and in the community to have face-to-face conversations with the constituents the department serves.

“If they want to talk about anything, I will talk and explore anything with them. Maybe it’s something that they didn’t know about. You can give them some education in regards to why we keep it, why we use it and how we function in certain ways to get things done. It might give them some enlightenment,” Carlson said. “The cool thing is that I need to come out of my box. They need to be able to give me some information and possibly tell me something that we didn’t really track with. It helps us look at things and re-evaluate things. It’s good for everybody, mostly for the kids too. We interact with the kids,l play games with the kids, so they don’t look at us as a threat in some way. They know that they can come talk to us and that we’re there to help.”

Line Roy, the City of Yelm’s Communications and Recreation Coordinator, believes that the City of Yelm and its citizens love the National Night Out event.

“It’s a great way to get the community together to enjoy a quality Yelm evening,” Roy said. “We love our partners that we bring out and we’re all here to have a good time. Everyone out here is giving back to make the community stronger.”

Roy said the attendees of the National Night Out event were able to enjoy different goodies, such as hot dogs, hamburgers, Kona Ice, root beer floats and more throughout the event thanks to local event sponsors.

Additionally, games like the donut dash, tug-of-war and a water balloon fight were held.

“We’re so glad that we get to bring this event to our community,” Roy said. “Having that partnership with our police and that great relationship that we’re forming with our community is really special to us at the city.”