JACKSON —It’s hard to imagine anyone in Vicksburg not knowing or having heard of Doug Arp. The booming voice that no walled room can contain, the infectious laughter that follows nearly every sentence and his passion for community policing have made Arp a fixture for decades.

On Thursday, he and the Warren County Sheriff’s Department were recognized for their work with the National Association of Town Watch, the sponsor of the annual National Night Out Against Crime.

Nearly 20 years ago, Arp began his zany antics. A member of the Vicksburg Police Department at the time, he pulled weeklong stunts — in a hole in the ground, in an armored tank, in a trash receptacle, among other odd locations — leading up to National Night Out. On that day, he emerged from the place of the stunt and traveled from neighborhood to neighborhood to talk about folks watching out for each other and community law enforcement.

“The only time people see the police is when they get caught speeding or someone breaks into their house,” Arp said Thursday during a ceremony at Attorney General Jim Hood’s office. “We are just normal people like everyone else … well.”

It’s the well that has endeared the community toward Arp. He embraces not being normal and happily calls his antics zany and wild. It’s his way to spread the word — and many, many have embraced his efforts.

Out of 203 award winners in 10 categories recognizing efforts for the 2010 National Night Out, Arp is the only individual person recognized. He was honored with an All-Star Award, while the Warren County Sheriff’s Department also earned honors for its participation — in concert with Arp — in 2010.

“It’s an honor to be recognized by the National Association of Town Watch and a credit to Sgt. Arp for always taking the bull by the horns,” Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace said. “He always comes up with quite bizarre ways to attract attention to crime and crime prevention.”

Arp began his crusade in 1992 when he worked with the VPD. After retiring because of an illness in his family, he took a National Night Out hiatus until rejoining the fight against crime, this time with the Warren County Sheriff’s Office. He has never taken any money during his stunts, but does enjoy the people stopping by — and the food they bring.

Last year, in July, he spent a week in a swimming pool near the Culkin Volunteer Fire Department. He said each night the water would have to be emptied and the pool refilled because the water temperature turned into a hot tub. Hood was on hand at the start of the July event.

“It was blazin’ hot that day,” Hood said.

Arp invited Hood to the 2011 event, for which plans are not final. Arp hopes to be suspended in a hot air balloon, but tethered to the ground. He wants to make it an interactive experience in which people will be able to ride about 30 or 40 feet up in the balloon before returning to the ground.

The historical National Night Out is the first Tuesday in August, but this year that is primary election day in Mississippi, so Arp is trying to move the events up.

We’d all like to live in a crime-free world, but one turn through these newspaper pages shows that is not always the case. For 20 years, Arp has been drawing attention to his cause and he has no plans to stop.

“We want neighbors to get to know one another,” Arp said. “The more they know one another, the more they look out for each other.”

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Sean P. Murphy is web editor. He can be reached at smurphy@vicksburgpost.com or at 601-636-4545.