From Dallas to Baton Rouge and even here in the Omaha metro, law enforcement is in a difficult place right now as police officers are being targeted.
The tension between police and parts of the community are deep. While these horrible instances happened in states far away, local law enforcement are trying to do all they can to be prepared.
“It has been a challenging time across our country in law enforcement,” said La Vista Police Captain Bryan Waugh.
These attacks killing eight police officers make local law enforcement anxious.
“There's a heightened level of awareness in law enforcement, because of the nature of these attacks,” said Waugh.
Waugh said the department prepares its officers with the appropriate training and these attacks just reinforce how dangerous their jobs are, and being alert everywhere they go.
On every call that you go to just look at what's going on around you, be a little extra vigilant.
The Omaha Police Department is also ramping up its security measures having some additional active shooter training for all sworn officers in the department.
“People are concerned about their safety,” said one of the organizers of National Night Out Kimara Snipe.
Snipe said this was a timely event give the tragedies involving police nationally.
“It's a great way to kind of start building those relationships and it comes at a perfect time,” said Snipe.
Which is why Waugh said they try to engage the community so it doesn’t always look like police are the bad guys.
“It comes down to the way we interact with our community in advance of these types of events so we've kind of banked a lot of equity with we treat them with respect, we treat them fairly,” said Waugh.
But Snipe said this currently tense relationships between law enforcement and the community needs to be discussed and patched up.
“Accountability is something that's lacking and it's lacking in a lot of places,” said Snipe.
National Night Out happens on August 2nd.
