National Night Out Tuesday August 5th
The Wahpeton Police Department's Chief, Scott Thorsteinson spoke to the club on July 29th about the Thirty-first National Night Out a program of the National Association of Town Watches, police and community organizations and occurring August 5th. The intent is to being the police closer to the community and to increase the eyes and ears of the police is any neighborhood. The WPD and other area police departments, fire departments and first responders use to host picnics which were well attended but never became the intended spring board for block parties and then neighborhood watches.
Chief Thorsteinson believes that this was because unlike urban areas most small town block residents know their neighbors and are inclined by the culture to question things that do not look right or to help neighbors who need help. A few Neighborhood Watch areas were established and now Chief Thorsteinson is encouraging neighborhood areas to look at their "block" and see if people all still know each other or is the demographic changing with unfamiliar faces and this perhaps a need for block parties to renew the cohesion and possibly Neighborhood Watch programs. If some "neighborhood" is interested then someone should contact WPD for help in setting up a program.
The Chief then went on to topics such as how not to be a victim (be alert; be aware of your surroundings; texting and mobile phone conversations is not being aware; if someone or thing is giving you a bad vibe trust your gut). One needs to make them self a "hard target" (good lighting; not advertising your stuff, putting it in trunks or under seats and locking vehicles). He reflected that violent incidents in the city are more common now then they were thirty years ago. Recently there have been a lot of "vehicle prowls" in the north side; again they hit "soft" targets (unlocked cars or where something worth stealing is visible and they break a window). The local community no longer primarily affects kids and how they behave; due to social media and television they mimic and even speak like people from outside the community.
He spoke of the memoranda of agreement between departments and how they can get a lot of resources to a potential crime scene is a hurry. He also spoke of the Southern Valley Response Unit which is the local SWAT team and how well trained and easily available they are.