On Sept. 9 and 10, the 16th annual Fall Into the Arts Festival was held at Centennial Lakes Park. The festival hosted over 200 vendors with a wide variety of goods. Products ranged from whimsical paintings and prints to patterned bow ties for dogs and even apple streusel food trucks. Paired with the beautiful walk along the lake and great weather, the festival was packed both days. 

What some festival-goers missed was the Edina Crime Prevention booth, the very cause the event was a benefit for. 

“The [Edina Crime Prevention Fund] is where we make money for the police that enables the department to get things that maybe the city wouldn’t be able to pay for,” Fund President Pacy Erck said. “Much of the money comes back to the Edina Crime Prevention Fund so we can help support our police department.” 

As both a student and teacher alumni at Edina High School, Erck’s involvement within the community is firmly established. Beginning in 1972, Erck taught health, physical education, and driver’s education courses at Edina for 35 years before retiring and later taking on the position with the fund. 

An important issue the fund touches on is officer accessibility. “Any community can call and have a night out and have an officer come and be there, which is just awesome,” Erck said. “And we’re trying to get the police to be around people and out and seen and talking so people can see these are caring people.”

This was achieved throughout the weekend as officers roamed the surrounding plazas, engaged in casual conversation with festival guests. Additionally, the booth had Edina volunteer reserve officers on hand to help answer questions and patrol the event.

“The Crime Prevention Fund and reserve officers work in tandem with the police department to help reduce crime and get more community involvement,” Reserve Officer Robles said.

The reserve officers and Edina Crime Prevention fund extend their reach into other events throughout the community. “Anytime there’s a big event around Southdale, our reserve officers volunteer their time, so they can help out with traffic and barricades so that our police can do other things,” Robles said. “In addition, we’re often used during the Hornet football games. We want to be there for students, teachers, and faculty. We’re here for the community.” 

“Someone just came by and said they feel safer in their neighborhood because they’ve realized that police are coming around more often than we’ve seen,” Erck said. “We just feel that if we can expose our police officers and let [residents] know that we’re here to answer your questions, that speaks volumes for our community.”