Standing behind the grill, Kenmore Police Chief Clifford Sether took a quick break from flipping burgers to focus on the purpose of Tuesday’s National Night Out.

“It’s a time when the nation gets together, all the neighbors come together. This is our way of saying we’re gonna stamp out crime in our neighborhood,” he said, noting that block-watch materials were available to residents, who could also check out the city’s fire rigs and bomb robot.

Added Chandra Fox of the Emergency Services Coordinating Agency: “We’re here tonight to support both our law-enforcement partners and also to help encourage people to achieve disaster preparedness for themselves and their families. This is a great crowd … we’ve had a lot of good conversations.”

Over in Bothell, a band played, kids lined up to take ID pictures, people visited booths set up by Broadview Security and the Center for Human Services (and many others) and a large blow-up Spider-Man lurked over the festivities.

Bothell Police Chief Forrest Conover surveyed the scene and noted: “Tonight is an important night because what you’re seeing here is probably the largest block-watch party in Bothell all year long. What it is is really a culmination of a lot of effort to put out as much crime-prevention information as we can. You get a chance to meet your neighbors, have everybody come down as part of the community.”

Ron O’Reilly of Broadview Security and his crew have been out at Bothell’s National Night Out for several years and enjoy meeting with the people in the community and offering safety advice.

“We believe in letting people know ways they can be more safe in their own home. Not just the alarm, but a lot of different methods they can choose,” he said.

Back over in Kenmore, resident and firefighter Eric Adman visited with Mayor David Baker and City Manager Frederick Stouder as the burgers grilled, kids climbed onto a fire truck and neighbors chatted away.

“The nice thing about an evening like this is the fact that I can run into the city manager and the mayor and can talk to them about issues that I’m concerned about,” he said. “And I get to connect up with my friends.”

For the record, Chief Sether and his crew grilled up a couple hundred burgers and about 100 hot dogs for Kenmore eaters. However, some burgers went without Sether’s special sauce, which he sadly ran out of despite making a quadruple batch, he said.