City Council Tuesday night is scheduled to take on the sometimes explosive issue of illegal fireworks in the city.
Councilors are being asked to pick a strategy to deal with the increased use of illegal fireworks during the July 4 holiday.
Those mentioned in a staff report include a combination of partnering with the community on education about illegal fireworks, adding a “heat map” that residents can anonymously share problem spots, opening a hotline where people can register complaints and increasing promotion of community fireworks hosted by the Skyline Kiwanis.
The city follows the state statute that prohibits fireworks from leaving the ground. But the volume of exploded illegal fireworks and the sheer number of complaints has impacted both the Longmont Emergency Communications Center and the capacity of the police department to respond to higher priority calls for service, according to the staff report.
From June 27 to July 11 in 2020, there were 3,869 fireworks calls and 810 other police calls for service, the staff report states. Only two tickets were issued.
In 2021_ during that same period — there were 4,041 fireworks calls to police and 470 calls for other services. Three tickets were issued, the staff report states.
Longmont Public Safety already uses a wide range of strategies to deal with illegal fireworks, minus an outright ban on their use. Those efforts have only been minimally successful, the staff report states.
The fireworks have led to frustration over the impacts on various residents with PTSD, veterans with PTSD, pets, seniors and those suffering from sleep disruptions, the staff report states.
A group called Protecting Our People & Property, or POP, has been working with city staff to come up with measures to mitigate the use of fireworks, the report states. Research has shown that a complete fireworks ban is difficult to enforce, the staff report states.
