By Julia Vergara | Staff Writer
The Baylor University Police Department (BUPD) will be promoting community, campus safety and crime prevention at their second annual National Night Out event Tuesday starting at 6:30 p.m. on Fountain Mall.
There will be a handful of fun and educational events such as a corn hole tournament where the winner will take on the undefeated police department team and a fatal vision course where students can witness first-hand the dangers of drunk driving by operating golf carts while wearing drunk goggles.
Other events include a chief challenge where people are encouraged to take a selfie with the chief, bicycle safety checks and a dunking booth.
“The best event is dunking the chief,” Chief of Police Brad Wigtil said. “Our students are getting the opportunity to put the chief in the water.”
Wigtil said that there will also be several booths and programs set up during the event to educate the community about personal safety topics such as bike safety, distracted driving and driving under the influence.
In addition to free t-shirts, food and drinks, Wigtil said that they will also be giving away a lot of neat door prizes including some high-end electronic devices.
Wigtil said that in order to be a very effective police department, they need to have a relationship with the community and this event is a great opportunity to do that.
“Developing those relationships opens up those lines of communication,” Wigtil said. “And that’s what we want, those lines of communications open so people feel comfortable calling us when there are issues on campus and to let us know what they think some of the safety issues might be on campus.”
Crime Prevention Officer Scott Curry, who organized the event, said that this is the second year BUPD has hosted this event on campus.
BUPD is hosting this event just so everyone can get out and mesh together to become just one community, Curry said.
“It’s all about community policing,” Curry said. “It’s a good chance for us all to get together.”
