Lewiston Detective Derek St. Laurent gets ready to throw a pass during an impromptu pickup football game at the Lewiston Athletic Park during Tuesday’s Night Out event. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

Festival Plaza in Auburn and the athletic fields behind Lewiston Middle School were bustling Tuesday evening as hundreds turned out for the annual National Night Out, a campaign meant to promote relationships between communities and police officers.

Officer Joseph Philippon of the Lewiston Police Department, who serves as the city’s community resource officer, said the city combined its monthly Movie Night with National Night Out.

People gather Tuesday at the Lewiston Athletic Park for National Night Out. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

“This is one of those things that needs to happen in all of our communities on a regular basis,” Philippon said. “A police department is only as strong as its relationship with the community.”

He said the mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, over the weekend “show that there’s still so much hate and division in this country.”

“More than ever, we need events like this, where people can have fun and connect with each other,” Philippon said. “It’s the counterweight to the hate.”

Salina Plourde said she and her family attend the National Night Out event every year.

She said she sees it as a way “for us all to learn to trust each other and get to know each other.”

In Auburn, a small stretch of Main Street in front of Festival Plaza was shut down to allow attendees to reach booths set up by law enforcement and other emergency responders.

Auburn Fire and Rescue parked one of its ambulances in front of Festival Plaza and offered several demonstrations, including free blood pressure screening and instruction on how to use a fire extinguisher.

Auburn Fire Chief Robert Chase said the only interaction most people typically have with law enforcement or other emergency responders is during a crisis.

“With an event like this, we’re taking a lot of familiar faces, putting them together and showing the community a different side,” Chase said.

He added that National Night Out is a “great opportunity to promote fire prevention and safety, something we don’t get to do when we’re at the scene of an emergency.”

For Officer Donald A. Cousins of the Auburn Police Department, who was at the event with his police dog, Rocky, National Night Out is a way to show the community officers are more than just “the police.”

“I think it’s a great way for people to see how hard their public servants work for them,” Cousins said. “It helps people get past their generalized perceptions of us. They can see we’re people as well as police officers.”

mdaigle@sunmediagroup.net

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