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Crime & Safety

National Night Out Celebrated by Sammamish Residents and Police

Several cars, trucks, boats and more were on hand for kids to play on and check out at Sammamish's National Night Out kickoff event.

The hosted a National Night Out kickoff event at on Tuesday, giving residents a chance to speak with representatives from various agencies about reducing crime while checking out a variety of vehicles and equipment.

Some of the vehicles on display included a King County Sheriff’s Office SWAT Team armored truck, a pair of boats from the Sheriff’s Marine Rescue Unit, Sammamish’s new black-and-white patrol car and a vintage 1951 Washington State Patrol car. The Fish and Wildlife Department even had a giant bear trap on hand, something its officials use whenever they have to relocate a problem bear.

A big crowd of kids and parents showed up at the event and climbed on and around the vehicles, listened to live music, played games and interacted with the different officers.

“I’m happy with the turnout,” Sammamish Police Sgt. Peter Horvath said during the event.

Horvath said that many of the people at the event were eager to ask questions and learn more about crime prevention and neighborhood safety.

Several King County Sheriff deputies who comprise the Sammamish police force later paid visits to the 16 different neighborhood events that had been planned for the evening. The deputies were available to answer questions, pass out information and let kids check out the patrol cars.

Maggie, a Sammamish resident who was at the kickoff event with her children, said that her kids loved seeing the police vehicles and taking part in the different activities.

Maggie also was looking forward to attending one of the neighborhood events taking place later in the evening. She was hoping to network with neighbors and learn more about improving everyone’s safety.

“We can watch out for each other,” Maggie, who did not want to be fully identified, said.

Sammamish’s National Night Out kickoff event was just one of thousands of National Night Out events that took place across the country on Aug. 2.

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The events are designed to raise awareness about community safety, give people a chance to meet neighbors and let residents talk with police about reducing crime.

Editor's note: If you have photographs from your neighborhood National Night Out block party, feel free to upload them to this story, if you're interested, to let others know of your community event. Just register your name and email address to get started.

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On the Sammamish police website, there are links to starting a Neighborhod Block Watch, requesting a deputy to check on your house if you're going to be away for three days or longer and mapping crime incidents in the city.

There also is information about understanding fraud, Internet safety and identity theft. While the city of Sammamish has a low crime rate, the number of residential burglaries increased more than 50 percent from 2009 to 2010.

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