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The National Night Out is a community event designed to strengthen community spirit, and police and community partnership, and to help people learn how to prevent crime. Several areas in the Tri-State area are holding National Night Out events Tuesday, Aug. 3. o Hagerstown: 6 to 8 p.m. at Fairground Park, 351 N. Cleveland Ave. Activities include a safety area for children and an adult health screening area. There will be information tables, police demonstrations, a dunk tank, a Moon Bounce, face painting and other entertainment.

WASHINGTON COUNTY -- The Washington County Sheriff's Office will pay its newest deputy with belly scratches and chew toys. Reiser, a 20-month old German Shepherd, is ready to hit the streets with his handler, Deputy Jason Litten, after the pair graduated Thursday from the Maryland Division of Correction's drug-detection course. "It has been one of the most enjoyable things I've ever done," Litten said. "He's a real good dog. " Litten and Reiser were among six dogs and handlers from law enforcement agencies across the state who graduated from the 10-week course, which was held at Division of Correction K9 Headquarters south of Hagerstown.

SMITHSBURG -- National Night Out is a nationwide crime-prevention effort that involved more than 15,000 communities last year, including some in Canada and military bases worldwide, according to the website http://www.nationalnightout.org . The event is designed to strengthen neighborhood spirit and police and community partnerships, and help people learn how to prevent crime, according to the website. Now Smithsburg has decided to get in on the action with an event scheduled for Aug. 3 at Veterans Park that will include a gang-awareness talk by a Washington County gang task-force investigator, a meal, and a family movie complete with popcorn.

Police officers chased and caught a man Friday who was accused of breaking into a woman's house, assaulting her and refusing to let her go, Hagerstown Police said. Police said Perry Lee Tasker Jr. ran from officers who responded to a call for help on Merrbaugh Drive shortly after 5 p.m. Friday. Tips from the public helped officers find Tasker near Hellane Park. He was caught while trying to get into a vehicle being driven on Nottingham Road, police said in a news release. Maryland State Police and the Washington County Sheriff's Office helped Hagerstown Police on the call.

MIDDLETOWN, Md. -- An 84-year-old Middletown woman suffering from dementia who was reported missing from her home Tuesday night was found Wednesday morning, Maryland State Police said. Florence Lorraine Leatherman, of 8408 Myersville Road, was found at about 8 a.m. Wednesday, police said. Leatherman had been reported missing by her son at 10:46 p.m., Maryland State Police said in a news release. It was not known when she left the residence, police said. Friends and family members searched the nearby area before contacting police, the release said.

JUNE 23, 1962-NOV. 17, 2009 SHARPSBURG - Steven Michael Orndorff, 47, of Sharpsburg, Md., died suddenly on Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2009, at his home. Steven was born in Washington County on June 23, 1962. He was preceded in death by his mother, Peggy L. (Stottlemyer) Orndorff. Steven worked for 22 years as a meat cutter for both Martin's and Giant Eagle in Frederick. More recently, he was employed with United Parcel Service in Hagerstown and ran his own lawn-care business in the Sharpsburg, Shepherdstown, Boonsboro area.

Officials said 11 grams of heroin were brought to Roxbury Correctional Institution on Monday, and because of the amount, it is believed the heroin was going to be distributed, according to court records. A Gywnn Oak, Md., woman admitted to bringing the contraband into the facility along Sharpsburg Pike south of Hagerstown in hopes of passing it to an inmate, Washington County District Court records show. Carla Renee Davis, 49, of 3800 Sylvan Drive, was charged with possession of contraband in a place of confinement and other charges, according to court records.

HAGERSTOWN -- Displays of old badges, faded newspapers and a slideshow of old photographs set the memories flowing as a group of about 70 old-timers from the Washington County Sheriff's Department and Detention Center gathered for a reunion Saturday night at the Elks Lodge on Robinwood Drive. "I haven't seen some of these guys in 25 years," said Kevin Ashburn, 50, of Hagerstown, who worked at the old county jail on Jonathan Street from 1978 to 1983. Ashburn said he and Lesa Bakner, 56, of Hagerstown, started working to organize a reunion after Lesa's husband, Craig Bakner, another former sheriff's department employee, died last year.

Two Maryland Correctional Training Center minimum-security inmates escaped Friday morning while working on the grounds, prison officials and police said. Matthew L. Chait and Michael Allen Johnson fled a work detail at about 10:15 a.m., Maryland State Police said in a news release. They were working with a contractor to paint a fence near the housing unit in which they were being housed, said Denise Gelsinger, the acting facility administrator for the housing unit. Chait, 26, was serving seven years for robbery with a deadly weapon and a handgun violation in Montgomery County and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle in Frederick County, Gelsinger said.

View the slideshow HAGERSTOWN -- A community climbed rocks, danced and generally enjoyed itself at Hagerstown's Fairgrounds Park on Tuesday, a national evening of standing up to crime and drugs. For the 26th annual National Night Out, hundreds of parents and children converged at the busy park, where they chatted with members of nonprofit groups, stepped along to a DJ's music and picked up free food. Masons set up their Maryland Child Identification Program, capturing the height, weight, fingerprints, DNA, photo and spoken words of dozens of children so their parents will have the details in case of an emergency.