National Night Out is an annual campaign to strengthen the police’s relationship with the community it patrols by encouraging crime prevention awareness and fostering bonds between neighbors. It is one of many strategies in the community policing model, a law enforcement approach with the core idea to have police work in partnership with the community they serve instead of seeing them as a separate entity, said Stanford University law professor David Sklansky. Although the concept developed in the 1980s, police forces in jurisdictions as large as Los Angeles and as small as Los Gatos and Saratoga continue to use its methods.

Sklansky said community policing became more popular because when done right, it can be highly successful. With the cooperation of people in their patrol areas, it can be easier for police to get their jobs done. Law enforcement’s alignment with the public also allows them to focus on the community’s goals and not just their own. In turn, that can improve police legitimacy and satisfaction because the public feels heard by authority figures.

“Community policing, when it’s done right, allows the public to be involved in the project of figuring out where their community should be headed, and that can build the political capacity that’s helpful in attacking other problems as well,” Sklansky said.

Sklansky said the success of community policing depends on what community members want from law enforcement, such as low crime rates and low levels of police abuse.