Law Enforcement Showcased

By BOBBIE GREEN

The Progress

Local families and area residents turned out in force to the annual Mesquite Night Out event held on Wednesday evening, Sept. 21 on the west field of the Mesquite Recreation Center. The event proved to be an outstanding show of law-enforcement, emergency response and public safety personnel and equipment. What’s more it was a real crowd pleaser.

The evening started with the arrival of a parade of 40 police, fire & rescue and safety equipment vehicles, six motorcycles, two electric bikes, and a handful of side-by-sides. The procession wound its way from the Oasis parking lot to the Recreation Center Park with all the lights, bells and sirens on.
By the time it was over, the full circle of the park was lined with vehicles and equipment.

Tables were also set up by various organizations having to do with community safety.
Las Vegas Metro Police joined in the event and brought out their patrol helicopter and six motorcycles and officers.

Other law enforcement agencies were also in attendance including Clark County School District Police, Nevada State Police, Mohave County Sheriff’s Office and Mohave County Search and Rescue.

The Mesquite Police displayed items used in their yearly agility test. Local police personnel let the kids try out a few of the agility moves after getting instructions from the officers. Needless to say, it was a big hit with the kids.

Watching the Metro Helicopter land drew everyone’s attention. After it reached the ground, children and adults alike were able to take a look inside of the patrol chopper.

Mesquite Police also did a demonstration with the drug search K-9s letting the dogs find the specially loaded suitcase.

Another station demonstrated the use of tasers on three willing volunteers out of the audience, using only the mild settings. This was a crowd favorite.
Attendees were free to get a close look all the equipment and vehicles inside and out.

Kids from the Mesquite Trekyyondo Center were in attendance to enjoy the event. But they also did a public demonstration for the crowd. The young martial artists performed some self defense skills for onlookers.

Erin Ellison has been attending Mesquite Night Out since the events began. “I think this one is the best one ever,” Ellison said, “because they have so much police community safety stuff here.”

Christa and Edgar Enriquez brought their kids to the Night Out event. “This is good to have all these police things here for the community to see,” Edgar said.

The Mesquite Citizens Volunteer Police Patrol were there, hoping to entice more volunteers to join their group.

The Progress asked the Metro motorcycle patrol officers what would cause them to provide services in Mesquite? In replying, they related an experience. One time a group of 200-members of a notorious motorcycle gang stayed at a Mesquite hotel while attending group meetings in Arizona. The Metro motorcycle officers said that they spent that day in Mesquite just in case there was any trouble.

The Mesquite Night Out is a part of a larger series of events called National Night Out. The original intent of National Night Out is to promote community awareness, safety and to enhance relationships between neighbors and law enforcement. This year’s local event was a return to that model, said MPD Administrative Manager Kim Otero.

“We were having such an overwhelming response from people and organizations and businesses wanting to participate that we couldn’t handle it all and have their equipment there also,” Otero said. “So Chief (MaQuade) Chesley decided to take it back to the original intent of law-enforcement and safety personnel focus and enhancing relationships with community.”

Based on the excitement during the night, of attendees and kids, it looked like the plan was a homerun.
“We are happy to be doing the ‘Night Out’ again!” said MPD Public Information Officer Wyatt Oliver. “It is always good for law-enforcement to connect with the community. This year our focus was with law-enforcement and public safety and a few of the groups here that take part in this effort.”