National Night Out Returns To Leesburg In 2021

LEESBURG, VA — National Night Out 2021 events in Leesburg on Tuesday, Aug. 3 are part of a nationwide push to strengthen police and community relations after more than a year of unrest and tense confrontations that began with the Black Lives Matter protests after the death of George Floyd.

The nationwide event “promotes police-community partnerships and neighborhood camaraderie to make our neighborhoods safer,” according to the National Association of Town Watch, the organization that founded the annual early August event in 1984.

An event hosted by the Leesburg Police Department will run from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday Aug. 3. The event will be held at 402 Ginkgo Terrace NE in Leesburg. The police department said there will be food trucks, balloon artists, and other offerings.

Since 1984, communities across the country have held National Night Out events on the first Tuesday of August. Block parties, festivals, parades, cookouts and other community events have been popular ways to celebrate the outreach-focused event.

More than 2 million Americans took part in the first National Night Out. Now, the event is celebrated in more than 16,000 communities across all 50 states, according to the National Association of Town Watch.

Many National Night Out events are back in 2021 after widespread cancellations last summer due to the coronavirus pandemic.

For example, businesses in Marple Township, Pennsylvania, are donating goods to be used during a night of music, games and demonstrations. In Palos Hills, Illinois, kids can play in large inflatable toys, and a face-painter will be on hand at a local park.

Tim McCarthy, a retired Orland Park, Illinois, police chief, has called National Night Out “a great way for kids to meet their local police officers in a relaxed, comfortable atmosphere unlike an emergency setting.”

In Leesburg, 2020 was a tense time for relationships between community members and law enforcement. In October, one organizing group, the Free Them All VA Coalition, claimed the Leesburg Police Department executed a search warrant to "identify and intimidate organizers and discourage them from further organizing."