Renton citizens stood up against crime, made connections and had some free hot dogs at Renton’s citywide celebration of National Night Out Tuesday evening at Heritage Park.

“It’s important to pull people together,” said Cyndie Parks, Renton’s National Night Out coordinator. “It’s awesome when you can give people an opportunity to meet people from the Police Department and the Fire department. It’s a casual atmosphere if they have questions or concerns.”

This is the fifth year Renton has had a citywide National Night Out event and it has rotated to different parks around the city. Parks was expecting roughly 600 people to attend. There were safety games, prizes and a bouncy slide for kids.

Valley SWAT also had a V150 armored vehicle there for people to get a closer look. And, of course, there were free hot dogs for the community. Most importantly though, it was a chance for people to make connections with their neighbors.

“Here’s your kickstart to go out into your individual neighborhood, maybe start thinking about organizing Block Watch,” Parks said. “I’m hoping it spurs and motivates them to stretch these things outside the bounds of just this one night.”

Communication between neighbors and between citizens and police is vital to preventing crime, said Renton Police Chief Kevin Milosevich.

“This is an opportunity for us to go out into the neighborhoods and meet the people,” Milosevich said. “And it’s an opportunity for them to get to know each other and what’s typical in their neighborhood and what’s not.”

Several local groups, including the South Union Neighborhood Association (SUNA), were in attendance, offering information.

“We want to meet more people in the neighborhood and hopefully we can work together to make it better,” said Dallin Slaugh of SUNA.

Renton joined forces with more than 15,000 communities nationwide for the 29th Annual National Night Out event. About 37 million people are expected to attend the event nationwide.