HAMPTON, Va. — All around the country, National Night Out is uniting communities and law enforcement.
In Hampton Roads, residents across the 757 welcomed National Night Out on Tuesday, especially after recent gun violence in the area.
For Ashley Howard and her son, Trent, their night out involved interacting with police, cars, face-painting and technology, including a law enforcement robot.
“It was a family night out,” Howard said.
The same goes for LaShay Freeman and her son, Justice, from Newport News.
“There’s no reason for me to not to come,” Freeman said.
Freeman has been attending National Night Out events since she was in elementary school in New Jersey.
“I really love just the way that the community all comes out, and you’ll see people that you know in your neighborhood, but might meet some new people,” Freeman said.
Both mothers said the events are crucial at this time following numerous recent shootings on highways and neighborhoods across Hampton Roads.
This includes one incident in Portsmouth, where a 16-year-old boy was shot and killed Saturday.
“It has been, to me, it’s a little ridiculous, a lot of the crime that we’ve experienced,” Freeman said. “Coming to something like this does take my mind off of it, but it also gets me to see that it can be better.”
“Everything that’s going on in the community, it’s great for them to show their faces, and show how they care for the community and bring the community together,” Howard added.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin made a stop at Tuesday’s National Night Out event in Hampton.
“I am tired [and] families are tired of watching our young people die of violence committed with guns,” Youngkin said when reacting to the recent gun violence in Hampton Roads.
He said these events across Virginia are a great chance for people and police to create and maintain relationships.
“Get with people one-on-one, finding out what their concerns are, making sure that we’re doing things that they’re expecting of us,” Hampton Police Division Sgt. Ashley Jenrette said.
Tuesday marked Sgt. Jenrette’s ninth National Night Out event.
“Just showing that connection between policing and the community helps to strengthen their neighborhoods, kind of helps reduce that crime [and] let’s those criminals know that we’re serious about the neighborhoods and keeping them safe,” Jenrette said.
Gov. Youngkin also talked about the success of Operation Bold Blue Line, which helps strengthen partnerships between state and local police.
Tuesday, he said these partnerships have resulted in more than 2,000 illegal drugs seized and hundreds of arrests, since last December.
News 3 asked Youngkin about how effective the initiative has been since being implemented.
“That has allowed us to launch drug task force.," Youngkin said. "It’s allowed us to bring State Police into high crime areas at a much higher degree. It’s allowed us to, in fact, cooperate in ways we hadn’t cooperated before."
Gov. Youngkin said, as the wait for a budget to be negotiated continues, he has budget amendments of between $60-70 million of funding for the next level of Operation Bold Blue Line.
Youngkin added his next goals for the initiative include a big push on recruiting more police officers.
