CINCINNATI — The Cincinnati Police Department brought a lot of officers, a lot of hot dogs and hamburgers and a lot of interesting police technology to all four police districts Tuesday as part of National Night Out.
We met the Powell family at Ziegler Park as 2-year-old Treyvon Powell Jr. and 9-year-old Tristen Powell peered into a police van at a large TV showing them from above.
The video feed was coming from a drone flying high over their heads.
"It's a cool angle to look at, different aspect to look at," Treyvon Sr. said.
Treyvon Sr. said he brought his kids to the park to enjoy the fun, but also to connect with police officers working downtown regularly.
He said it was an effective way to learn about the people behind the badge.
"Put a face to who's trying to protect, hold down the city," he said.
Police Chief Teresa Theetge said National Night Out has been a big event in Cincinnati for 41 years.
WATCH: We talk to Chief Theetge at National Night Out
We asked Theetge how relationship building from nights like this plays into the grander public safety strategy the city has been working on for years, and more recently during a summer crime wave, and she said it's impossible to do a lot of police work in isolation.
"Anything we do with public safety, we cannot do by ourselves. It takes a lot of partners, and a lot of those partners are in the community," she said.
Mayor Aftab Pureval also made visits to several parks on National Night Out.
We asked him for an interview at Zeigler Park, and a member of his team told us he would come back to us.
Instead, he went to another night out event at Owl's Nest Park in Evanston, where he filmed this video for social media.
Happy National Night Out! Our @CincyPD officers are out building connections with residents throughout our city. Tonight’s a great opportunity to come meet our officers and help support a strong community! https://t.co/HnEdbDrqTE pic.twitter.com/lV7iGJIrd4
— Aftab Pureval (@AftabPureval) August 5, 2025
The night of connection also came ahead of Cincinnati City Council's upcoming vote on a complex curfew policy and other policies to address the continued issue of youth violence and crime. That meeting is set for Wednesday at 2 p.m.
