VISTA — Three hundred Vista residents filled downtown Aug. 5 for a going away party. After a raucous celebration and awards ceremony, the residents marched down the Townsite streets side by side with local sheriff’s deputies and firemen in a display of community solidarity to say farewell to crime and drugs at the annual “Walk against Crime.”

“Stop Violence. Stop Crime. Stop Drugs,” attendee Miguel Bernal said, concisely stating the goal of the event.

The event was part of an annual, nationally coordinated “National Night Out” with more than 10,000 participating communities. This latest event was the sixth for Vista and the largest since the city started having them. Online preregistrations were up to 165 from last year’s 50. Part of this year’s success comes from the city’s emphasis on team participation, according to Vista’s Community Outreach Manager Kathy Valdez. Fourteen teams walked, four of them with more than 40 members. The Vista Townsite Community Partnership alone fielded 97 walkers, winning the Largest Team trophy.

Attendance for the walk has not only grown, it has become a more accurate representation of the city’s demographic, according to Mayor Morris Vance.

“We have a wider variety of participation,” Vance said. “A lot of people from the neighborhoods that we’re walking through (participated) as well as people throughout the community.”

The enthusiasm of the walkers was apparent as they strode through the older neighborhoods of Townsite waving homemade signs, although the streets were largely empty.

“A lot of people are right in the process at 6 o’clock of doing their dinner,” Councilman Robert Campbell said. “They’re interested, but they don’t know what it is. I think there should be another element to it, that’s as we pass people’s homes, there ought to be a tailing group that hands out material.”

The timing of the event also meant the sun blazed throughout Vista’s portion of the national event.

“There’s been issues about the whole thing being on a Tuesday during the week, being in the summer when it’s hot out,” Crime Prevention Specialist Carmela Lutz said. “They’re talking about possibly moving it to September for next year.”

These issues aside, Vista Sheriff’s Capt. Tim Curran had no doubt that the walk had a positive impact on the community.

“Just seeing the numbers of people coming out makes me very pleased,” Curran said. “More community involvement is probably going to lessen your crime rate. The numbers for this community speak for itself. The crime rate is down 19 percent this year.”

Events like “National Night Out” where law enforcement get to interact closely with citizens have become a Vista staple over the last few years, part of the legacy of former Capt. Ed Prendergast, who made community outreach a guiding department philosophy to combat a wave of crime which plagued the city just a few years ago.

“There’s a lot of healing that still needs to take place, and I think it’s well on its way,” Lt. Scott Rossal said.