Grand Coulee police stage their first National Night Out

Families mingled as a live band played, kids cooled on an inflatable water slide, and fire fighters practiced tearing apart a car during a National Night Out event put on by the Grand Coulee Police Department Tuesday night.

Police officers of many kinds also mingled or offered information from booths, including Colville Tribal Police, National Park Service rangers, State Parks rangers, and, of course, the sponsoring Grand Coulee officers. They had closed Midway Avenue and diverted traffic for the event, but could not be easily rounded up for a group photo, which was appropriate. Mingling was more in the spirit of things.

After all, the big block party was part of a national effort that started in the mid-1980s to "promote police-community partnerships and neighborhood camaraderie."

Plenty of that was in evidence. The Grand Coulee Community Church set up a table and gave away collector's plates and candy. Hometown Hooligans, from Coulee City, played cover songs in front of Coulee Wall Variety Store. Solveig Chaffee, of Voltage Coffee House, had cookies for kids to decorate. Lucas Bird parked his race car in the middle of the closed highway. Jess Ford offered a drawing for kids to win a mini electric car. Fire fighters tore into a real one, literally prying it apart with a "Jaws of Life" rescue device. The car was apparently donated, and painted festively, by Bird's Auto Body.

And everywhere, people mingled, even a few on the roof over PK's Culinary.

Police Chief John Tufts took no credit for the event, which appeared to have drawn hundreds. He said Officer Matt Gilbert organized it.

Tuesday's NNO was the GCPD's first. Coulee Dam's police department started offering NNO events a few years ago, and was also putting one on there, on Mead Avenue at the same time.

The national organization that promotes NNO says the event "culminates" annually on the first Tuesday in August.