HOOVER – Hoover’s National Night Out gives residents a chance to get to know law enforcement in a positive setting.

“We like this event because it’s an opportunity for us to interact with people in a stress-free environment,” Hoover Police Department Lt. Keith Czeskleba said.

This year’s event will be held from 6-8 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 1 at The Grove Shopping Center off John Hawkins Parkway.

Numerous law enforcement agencies, including Hoover Police Department and Hoover Fire Department, typically have personnel present and information available for the public.

Usual participants include the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the National Guard and others.

The HPD Motor Scouts unit will perform a demonstration on the type of training necessary to ride police motorcycles.

Other units expected to participate include the department’s bomb squad, SWAT team and dive team.

“We’ll have people there to talk about all of the equipment and how it works,” Czeskleba said.

Also, a local Masonic lodge will bring equipment used to make identification kits for children.

The kits include information that would be helpful for law enforcement—such as the child’s name, age, fingerprints, a recent photo, physical description and identifying marks—in the event a child goes missing.

“Already having that information on hand eliminates that step in the process so we can get that out quicker and find the kid quicker,” Czeskleba said.

About 6,000 or 7,000 people attended last year’s National Night Out in Hoover, Czeskleba said, and organizers expect around the same number of attendees this year.