Hundreds of local families attended the Newport Beach National Night Out event at Bonita Canyon Sports Park on Tuesday, Aug. 5 from 4 to 7 pm.
National Night Out is an annual community-building campaign held at thousands of cities around the country that promotes police-community partnerships and neighborhood camaraderie.
At the event, Newport Beach Police Department offered a variety of interactive displays that included the CSI department, the SWAT team (including a SWAT vehicle), a K-9 team, Animal Control, Mounted Unit police officers and their horses, and much more.
Residents learned about crime and drug prevention, home security, child safety, and the Citizens’ Police Academy. There was also an appearance from McGruff, “The Crime Fighting Dog.”
TK Burgers provided complimentary burgers and chicken sandwiches to all attendees.
Eric Rosenberg with the K9 unit was at the event with his partner Ryde. Ryder has been with the NBPD K9 unit for four years, and lives with Rosenberg and his family. Ryder is six years old and just got a clean bill of health from the vet, said Rosenberg, so Ryder will be part of the NBPD for several more years.
Three horses with the Mounted Unit were at the event. Officer Adam Gilbert sat atop Clyde, who is half quarter horse and half Clydesdale. “He’s about 18 years old,” said Gilbert. “He’s a little bigger than most horses, like the Budweiser horses.”
Sergeant Sabrina Fabbri was atop Stetson, the newest addition to the team. Stetson is 14.
Officer Isaac Furnari was riding Poncho, nine. According to Furnari, the mounted team is not just for show at special events.
“We go out on patrol quite often. We’ll do everything from taking reports, making arrests, writing tickets, crowd control, anything like that. We’ll patrol the beaches on the holidays. We’ll go out to Fashion Island. We’ve done some burglary suppression off Newport Coast at night. We’ve done patrols in Buck Gully. It’s the original four-wheel drive, as they say.”
Spotted at the event were Newport Beach Mayor Joe Stapleton, Newport Beach Councilmember Robyn Grant, Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley, State Assemblymember Diane Dixon, NBPD Chief Dave Miner, and 2024 Newport Beach Citizen of the Year Marie Case.
