COLUMBUS, Ohio — The city of Columbus is working to address the crime issue with the help of Tuesday's National Night Out, where communities will gather to unite law enforcement and community leaders with families.
National Night Out is an annual community-building campaign that promotes police-community partnerships to help make neighborhoods safer.
Andreona Gregory, a mother of two in the Hilltop neighborhood will be participating in NNO with her company, Fortuity.
"I think this is something good just for kids to be honest. Kids are very fearful of the police. This is an opportunity for them to meet the police, be up close and personal with them, this is something out of their comfort zone,” Gregory said.
Andreona says she tries to be a good mentor at home and at work with her Fortuity team who says they work to provide work and better opportunities for their community of Franklinton.
“We aim to make lives better by providing work and better opportunities for those who live in our community and Franklinton National Night Out happens to be a fantastic location for us to be more visible, let community members know we're here and to recruit them,” said Mari Floyd.
Whitehall Police Sergeant John Earl says this is his favorite day of the year.
“Literally it gets police, law enforcement and the community together to interact in ways they don't normally interact. We have a lot of fun events going on such as bounce houses, free food, lots of giveaways and lots of giveaways and different law enforcement agencies around franklin county,” Sgt. Earl said.
Columbus City Councilmember Emmanuel Remy says there's a deeper opportunity to connect.
“Anytime we have the opportunity to get the safety message out, it's a good opportunity so you know we're going to talk to people about locking up their guns. We have gun locks that we can hand out, we certainly do not want people to resort to gun violence and so whenever we can spread that word, that's what its all about,” Remy said.