In the 26 years he’s been promoting the National Night Out Against Crime in Warren County Doug Arp has gone to extreme lengths to get out the word.

But this year, he dropped to his lowest stunt yet, calling on some no good snakes in the grass to get his message across.

Actually, three snakes — a king snake, corn snake and a cherry tail boa constrictor from South America; all brought to Vicksburg through the courtesy of the Jackson Zoo for the National Night Out Against Crime kickoff Wednesday on Jackson Street attended by residents, police officers, sheriff’s deputies and firefighters. The Night Out block parties are Thursday at five locations:

• VHA – Elizabeth Circle

• River City Rescue Mission

• Wisteria Neighborhood

• Fostoria/Drummond Street

• Forrest Street

With the exception of Wisteria, all the block parties begin at 5 p.m. The Wisteria neighborhood event begins at 6 p.m.

“I couldn’t think of a better animal to take a bite of crime than a snake,” Arp said.

“Actually,” he said after the kickoff program, “The snakes are symbol that we need to be constantly on the lookout for crime because if we are not careful it can come up and bit us like a snake. That’s the motto for this year, ‘Don’t Let Crime Bite You.’”

Elizabeth Stengen, education curator for the Jackson Zoo, handled the snakes, described them and discussed how, like law enforcement snakes work to protect humans from rodents, and other threats.

“National Night Out has been a tradition in Vicksburg and Warren County,” Sheriff Martin Pace said, adding it provides people not only the opportunity to meet their neighbor, but to also meet their local law enforcement officers in a casual setting like the block parties.

“It’s good for people to get out and meet and know their neighbors,” he said, “Because you get to know who’s living in your neighborhood, and that way, you’ll be aware if you see someone or something that doesn’t belong.

“We want applaud Mr. Arp for his work to promote National Night Out,” Pace said. “He has continued to do this after he retired from the police department and has at times used his own money to do it.”

“If you say ‘we’re going have a crime meeting,’ nobody shows up,” Arp said, concerning his promotions to call attention to National Night Out. “But when you do things like stay in an ice box or go up in a hot air balloon, people want to come out and see that, and you can get the word out.”