Editor’s note

National Night Out Against Crime was mostly a night in at the air-conditioned gym of Ridgely Elementary School. The NNO idea is that if neighbors and children get to know police officers informally they’ll work together as partners against criminals. Parents and children lined up for ice cream served by friendly cops, the ever-present Mayor Mike Houston worked the room and people visited display tables hosted by hopeful neighborhood associations, the Northside Community Children’s Library and the FBI. The police did persuade the crowd to go outside for a demonstration by the talented canines of the SPD, explaining that the dogs are simply having fun when they sniff out cocaine or take down an aggressor on command. One mom watching with her son reminisced with police about how the dogs once helped find her missing eightyear-old. She asked if she could have the kid microchipped. –Fletcher Farrar, editor