Santa Maria police stepping up enforcement of illegal fireworks
SANTA MARIA, Calif. -- The Santa Maria Police Department is ramping up its efforts to curb the use of illegal fireworks that are lighting up the city's sky nightly.
"We know they're going off," said Lt. Mark Strecker, Santa Maria Police Department. "We can hear them and see them from the police department."
Strecker said the numbers of calls coming each day is impacting the city's dispatch system.
"We've had a significant number of increase in the number of calls coming into dispatch for firework complains," said Strecker. "The people that it is affecting and mostly the people who are calling, we get a lot of elderly that call, people with pets, our veterans and we are very sensitive to that and we have to be responsive to that."
This week, the city is reporting a number of citations that have either been witnessed by police officers or caught on video by a resident.
"Thus far, we've written seven citations to violators and that's $1,000 per citation," said Strecker. "It's just a warning to everyone that as fun as it is. It's a great time of year. It's a great holiday. It's an expensive ticket."
According to Fire Chief Todd Tuggle, there's a good reason why the city is being proactive in its stance against the use of illegal fireworks.
"They're loud," said Tuggle. "They explode. Sometimes they don't go as planned. They go a little lower than intended and they have the opportunity to land on combustible surfaces, i.e. roofs, leaf piles, things of that nature and create some pretty significant problems and safety issues."
To help reduce the ongoing problem, the police department has deployed a special enforcement fireworks team throughout the city.
"We have teams," said Strecker. "We have extra officers on patrol. Some of them are undercover. You may not know that they're cruising around. They're watching for fireworks to be lit off. They're responding to calls from dispatch and there are at least four extra teams of extra officers out looking for fireworks violators."
He also pointed out the extra enforcement will continue past the Fourth of July since the department expects the use of fireworks to continue at least for a few more days past the holiday weekend.
The city also has set up a webpage residents can report the use of illegal fireworks.
"We do have a city ordinance that allows you to a video a violator," said Strecker. "You can bypass the police department entirely. You can get on our city website. There's a link the first thing you come to. You upload the video and there's form that you can fill out. It's very simple. It's a fillable form. Upload the video. You have to be a testifiable witness. That's a challenge. Nobody wants to be that person that points their finger at their neighbor. We understand that, but it is an option."
As the Independence Holiday weekend begins, the City of Santa Maria wants the public to have fun, but to also strictly obey the law.
"We ask everyone in Santa Maria to be respectful of your neighbors," said Santa Maria spokesperson Mark van de Kamp. "We want you to enjoy the Fourth of July, which is why the city allows the use of safe and sane fireworks only on the Fourth of July, so wait until then, and have those celebrations with your family."
