Soledad hosts National Night Out with local law enforcement
Ata Shaheen
SOLEDAD, Calif. (KION-TV) — August 5 is National Night Out with law enforcement agencies across the country working to strengthen ties to the people they police.
Sheriff’s Deputy Richard Riley usually spends his workdays as a member of the air support unit ready to hop in a plane and fly out if someone’s in crisis, but Tuesday evening, he was manning a much smaller plane, with much smaller pilots.
“Oh, they love it. You can manipulate all the controls. They’re asking. Okay. We’re, some of the controls actually make the wings function,” said Deputy Riley.
Families getting to play games and interact with local law enforcement in a casual, fun environment is what the national night out in Soledad is all about.
“I see nothing but positive vibes.I mean, that’s what we’re out here for, to let people know that, you know, we’re not bad guys. You know, we’re just humans. We want to interact with you. We want you to interact with us,” said Riley.
But on a day-to-day basis, contact between law enforcement and regular folks tends not to be all smiles.
“Obviously if you’re going to a in action call you don’t necessarily want it at that time is you’re there to ruin their day as far as they think. But I mean, just driving around the street or interacting with the jail. For the most part, everybody has good. But you know, they know we have a job to do,” said RIley.
And Soledad leaders say their little town stands out in a big way when it comes to the philosophy behind patrolling the streets.
“The relationship is great. Our police department does, so much to help our community. They do a lot when it comes to, community policing. And, yeah, they have a great relationship with the businesses, with our residents, and with everybody at large,” said Maria Corralejo with the Soledad Chamber of Commerce.
Police Chief Patrick Valenzuela has only been in town for about a month and said one of the things that drew him here was an emphasis on community policing.
“We should be going out there. We shouldn’t be trying to make arrest all the time. We’re about we’re people centered, and so we want to help them just as much as anything else, right? It’s important for people to feel like they can come to us anytime. And if we’re not doing our job and being police friendly, they don’t want to contact us,” said Chief Valenzuela.