Kent Police cite 38, arrest 3 for fireworks violations

Kent Police were kept plenty busy with their new fireworks emphasis patrols this Fourth of July.

More than 50 officers were assigned to fireworks patrols from July 1-5 and they handled 524 fireworks complaints called to 911, including 246 on July 4. Police staff crunched numbers on Tuesday and issued the following statistics:

• 3 arrests, including one felony arrest for an illegal explosive device

• 38 infractions (tickets) issued for violations

• 8 criminal citations

• 9 warnings issued

• 15 fireworks seized cases

• 105 pounds of fireworks confiscated

• 13 minor fires caused

In 2014, police issued two criminal citations, made no arrests and didn’t issue any infractions, which is a $250 fine for illegally setting off fireworks. Officers tended in the past to simply issue warnings and didn’t have any emphasis patrols.

Because of so many complaints from residents after last year’s Fourth of July about illegal fireworks going off in their neighborhoods, city officials worked with the police department to come up with a plan to try to slow down the explosions. The City Council decided against banning personal use of legal fireworks in the city on July 4.

The 246 fireworks complaint calls on July 4 compared to 145 calls last year as police encouraged residents to call 911 about fireworks. Calls also were up on other days this year, with 20 on July 1; 30 on July 2; 62 on July 3; and 109 on July 5. That compares to 19, 19, 41 and 52 on those dates in 2014.

“I believe we got more calls because people were concerned due to the (dry) conditions,” Assistant Police Chief Derek Kammerzell said in an email.

A number of the complaint calls turned out to be people legally setting off fireworks.

“We received a high volume of firework complaint calls on July 4 when it was legal to discharge and many reports of illegal fireworks that were in fact legal,” Kammerzell said.

Officers found 48 other criminal infractions during their fireworks emphasis patrols.

Despite the number of infractions issued, police had trouble finding the people setting off illegal fireworks even with the extra officers.

“Although chronic hot spot locations are known, being there at the time of the violations is the challenge,” according to the staff report. “It is also challenging to pinpoint the actual origin of the violations.”

Finding witnesses to the violations that would cooperate with prosecution also loomed as a challenge.

Police had adequate staffing for the emphasis patrols as well as the city’s Fourth of July Splash event at Lake Meridian Park, according to the report.

Officers cleared out all city parks at 10 o’clock each night to keep people from lighting off fireworks in them.

The overtime costs for the emphasis patrols were about $12,400, according to the report. Several officers were reassigned from traffic patrols to fireworks patrols, which meant a decrease in normal traffic enforcement.

A few residents wrote letters to the editor to the Kent Reporter this week with complaints about trying to get through on 911 to report illegal fireworks, with one caller spending as much as 12 minutes on hold. Another caller was told higher priority calls had to be handled first.

The staff report indicated that 911 calls for other crimes on July 4-5 were up as well, including 90 priority 1 and 2 calls, including a shooting, stabbing, domestic violence calls, a residential burglary, a large biker party with outlaw motorcycle gangs present and DUI calls. Those calls took away officers from enforcing fireworks violations.

Recommendations in the staff report for future Fourth of July patrols include mandating patrol officers to 12-hour shifts on July 4 to facilitate higher staffing numbers for enforcement; consider increasing the number of enforcement teams and assign them to hot spots; and consider use of plain clothes officers to assist with spotting violators.