Residents gathered at the Sculpture Garden on Sunset Highway with city officials, police officers and firefighters to learn about everything from ways to prevent burglaries and car prowls to how to prepare for earthquakes at a National Night Out event on Aug. 4.

There was a free hot dog cookout, and musician Nancy Stewart performed songs about heroes for the crowd of about 200 people.

Police also went around to 15 neighborhood block parties that evening, said Emergency Manager Jennifer Franklin.

National Night Out is a community-police awareness-raising event in the United States, held the first Tuesday of August annually in cities around the country.

The event is designed to increase awareness about police programs in communities, such as drug prevention, town watch (like Mercer Island’s Paws on Patrol), neighborhood watch and other anti-crime efforts. Neighborhood events can be as simple as backyard cookouts or full blown block parties.

The event also served as a soft launch for the city’s new “Lock It or Lose It” campaign, encouraging Islanders to lock doors and windows before leaving the house.

Almost half of home burglaries on the Island annually involve an unlocked door or window. Burglaries occur one to two times a week on average, according to the Mercer Island Police Department (MIPD). In 80 percent of the cases, no one was home, and 65 percent of the crimes occur during the day.

To get involved in local crime prevention efforts, consider starting a “block watch” with your neighbors or joining Paws on Patrol. You can also visit www.crimemapping.com or read MIPD’s crime prevention booklet.

Although the Island’s burglary rate is comparable to other nearby jurisdictions, MIPD believes that with citizens’ help, it can achieve the lowest burglary rate in the region.

Many residents in a recent online survey asked for help remembering to lock doors, and wanted to hear more real-life stories of crimes or “near-misses” from their neighborhood.

The new campaign will address these needs, using various educational tools and outreach measures to help residents remember to lock doors.

More than any other single behavior, this dramatically decreases the risk of a home burglary attempt, according to a city press release.