When a drug dealer driving a Porsche traveling east on the I-20/59 corridor was arrested, the car was seized and turned into a police car to make a statement: Not in Hoover.
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Courtesy of Lance Shores
Hoover police officers enjoy the opportunity to get to know local community members in a casual, relaxed environment.
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Courtesy of Lance Shores
This Porsche-turned-police car was originally seized from a drug dealer who was arrested while travelling along the I-20/59 corridor.
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Courtesy of Lance Shores
Alabama Fire Prevention and other organizations promote best practices in safety at Hoover Public Safety Night, formerly known as National Night Out.
“Sometimes adults and kids are hesitant to approach a police officer and just talk. But, when we bring this out, it draws a lot of attention and is an easy conversation piece,” said Hoover Police Department Public Information Officer Brian Hale.
Then there’s the Hoover BearCat.
“It’s like a tank on wheels,” Officer Hale said. “It is a rescue vehicle that is armor-plated so that we can drive into an active shooter situation and rescue people who may be in a line of fire.”
The Hoover PD Porsche 911 as well as the Hoover BearCat are just two of the features of the Hoover Police Department’s annual Public Safety Night Out, which will be held Tuesday, March 19 from 5:30-7:30 in Riverchase Galleria Belk parking lot.
The Public Safety Night Out is a local take on the National Night Out Campaign. National Night Out was introduced in August of 1984 by the National Association of Town Watch, a nonprofit organization that provides information and resources to community watch groups. This event is held in August and October, where Hoover’s Public Safety Night Out is held in March. Since 2010, the Hoover Police Department has made its Public Safety Night Out a community-wide, family-oriented event.
“The original National Night Out was designed for each individual neighborhood to have its own event to spread awareness of crime prevention and drug prevention,” Hale said.
The idea, Hale said, was for everyone to turn their porch light on and build neighborhood camaraderie to show criminals that neighbors are “sticking together.”
“In Hoover, we go big or go home, so ours is still a crime prevention event, but we also want to treat it as a way to engage the community in a relaxed, friendly, positive setting to provoke conversations with people so they can feel comfortable approaching police,” Hale said. “It morphed from this event, and now it’s become a city-wide thing with police and fire, but also FBI, state troopers and different organizations.”
Hale said Hoover Public Safety Night Out has become known as a family event with bounce houses, rock wall climbing, a car show, food trucks, live music, airbrushed tattoos, face painting and more.
Hale said this year’s event will feature child ID kit stations, where a family can burn a CD with the child’s identifying information, such as the child’s name, address, parent contact information, photographs and digital fingerprints.
“So, if a child ever goes missing, they have that CD ready to go to hand to the responding officer, and it helps save valuable time in the case of this type of emergency.”
Hale said the community’s response to this event has been overwhelming.
“The parking lot is always full of people. Everyone is always glad that we do this and they have a fun time,” Hale said. “Many times, people only see police or firemen when they are in trouble. We are trying to change the narrative because we want to encourage folks to visit with us and ask questions.”
For more information, go to hooverpd.com/national-night-out.