National Night Out Hosted by Inkster Police Department

The Inkster Police Department held the 2022 National Night Out event in the department's parking lot on the evening of Tuesday, August 2. National Night Out is an annual community-building campaign held nationally on the first Tuesday in August to promote police and community partnerships, neighborhood relations, and trust within the community.

Inkster Police Chief Bill Ratliff says the event combines the police department and stakeholders in the region including community organizations, non-profits, and businesses to join together to throw a party for the community. "It's an effort to build relationships, keep old relationships alive, and while doing all that the children have a blast. This is a top-notch event for us every year, Inkster has the number one National Night Out in the whole metropolitan area," said Ratliff.

The event featured local musical acts, famous Gospel singer Kelontae Gavin, radio personality and comedian Coco, YouTube stars Fred and Tim Williams a.k.a. "the Twins," and Motown superstar Martha Reeves. All food and drinks were provided free of charge. Other attractions included basketball hoops, cornhole, bounce house, a dunk tank, face painting, and a video game trailer.

Neighborhood groups hosting vendor tables included the Inkster Chamber of Commerce, the Western Wayne Family Health Center, Clayton's Kitchen and Catering, and the Michigan State Police. "All of these different Inkster-based businesses and organizations come out here because they know the importance of building relationships in this community; we're really excited about the level of participation from the members of the community," Ratliff added. "I work hard at trying to make sure that our city is shown in the right light. So many times the negative news, so many times it's a tragic event or something bad-but we do so much more than that and there's so much that's positive happening in the city."

He stressed how important his city is to him as he grew up in Inkster and is proud to serve his hometown. "I just believe that everything we do, we do it for the citizens. They owe us nothing, we owe them. We are servants of the community and this is just one way we can give back. As the chief of police I feel it's really important to bring people together at these events. Everyone pitches in to make this event successful year after year and it gets bigger every year and we really, really enjoy it."