By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – Locals will have a chance to connect with the first responders who keep them safe in Alabaster during the city’s upcoming National Night Out on Crime event in early October.

The event will be held from 6-8 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 2, in the parking lot of the Target store in the South Promenade shopping center.

Each year for the event, the Alabaster Police Department and Alabaster Fire Department join several other local organizations as they set up tables in the store’s parking lot. Target typically donates food for all in attendance.

During the event, members of the public get a chance to take an up-close look at the equipment used by the fire and police departments, and have an opportunity to talk with first responders outside of emergency scenarios.

Local nonprofit and community service organizations, such as SafeHouse of Shelby County, Compact 2020 and police explorer posts, also set up tables in the shopping center’s parking lot to give attendees a chance to learn more about them.

The free event is a tradition begun several years ago in Alabaster, and is one of several similar events in the Birmingham metropolitan area between August and October.