2022 4th of July Illegal Fireworks Enforcement Detail Report Visalia Fire Department
Prevention
Social Media Posts
Banners hung at all stations
visalia.city/celebratesafely
Approximately 2,500 door hangers were distributed throughout the community.
Call Center
In operation on July 3rd and 4th
9 dedicated call takers
Information was relayed in real time to patrol units in the field.
Filtered 294 calls that otherwise would have gone to dispatch.
Provided citizens a direct line to call specifically designed to gather fireworks use data.
Calls per month indicate that use begins in mid to late May and continues to increase as Independence Day approaches. July continues to be our busiest time for illegal fireworks use throughout our community.
Enforcement
Illegal fireworks citation amounts begin at $2,000 for the first offense and increase to $3,000 for the second and $4,000 for each additional offense.
Citations are tracked over a three-year period. If a resident received a citation last year for $2,000, and is cited again this year, this year’s citation will would be for $3,000.
Patrols
Dedicated patrols throughout the month of June.
Increasing saturation around the Independence Day Holiday Partnering with Visalia Police Department
Each patrol unit was comprised of a Visalia Police Officer and Visalia Fire Department member.
Beginning in 2017, consistent call data has been collected. Calls for service spiked in 2020 and have steadily declined. Patrol units in the field have noted the same trend throughout the years.
The data collected indicates that citation trends have tended to follow illegal use reports.
During the 2022 patrol period 82 citations for possession, use, and/or sales were issued throughout our community.
As reports are received by Dispatch and the Call Center, the data is relayed via a map to units in the field. Units typically start their patrols by focusing on hot spots and then transition to in-field visuals as use increases throughout the night. Units assigned to the patrol detail are not dispatched to specific calls. Some incidents require multiple units respond for officer safety.
This concludes the 2022 4th of July Illegal Fireworks Enforcement Detail Report.
Thank you.