National Night Out draws huge crowds, giveaways, family time

Long Branch — The weather turned out to be beautiful on Tuesday night and so did the crowd, as Long Branch celebrated National Night Out in Slocum Park.

National Night Out was started as a way to promote better relations between police and the community, and for neighbors to meet each other.

There was pizza, hot dogs, subs, desserts, cakes and soft drinks, all for free! On top of that there were plenty of prizes to be won if you took a chance at spinning the prize wheel, all donated by local businesses. The grand prize, a day at Promenade Beach Club, was won by Ajeleth Sanchez.

Kids could Touch-a-Truck or Dunk a Cop, and Ident-a-Kid was available, or they could watch the amazing demonstrations.

Of course the highlight of the night is always the K9 demonstration, where police dog attacks the “offender” by commands. This year K9 dog Hagan was given commands by Sgt. Robert Shamrock to attack Police Officer Omar Akel.