Kent Police plan crackdown on illegal fireworks

Kent Police plan a boom and bust approach this year to anyone discharging illegal fireworks.

The department will send out more than 50 officers during a five-day crackdown to catch people setting off illegal devices.

Because of so many complaints from residents after last year’s Fourth of July weekend 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.

“We will step up enforcement of existing laws,” said Assistant Police Chief Derek Kammerzell to the City Council’s Public Safety Committee on June 9. “We will be utilizing emphasis teams with clear enforcement expectations from July 1-5.”

Twenty teams totaling more than 50 officers will hit the streets during the five-day period to cite people setting off illegal fireworks.

“What the public should expect is if they get caught in violation, they will receive enforcement and not a warning,” Kammerzell said. “That’s the expectations we are giving to the officers.”

It’s a $250 fine in the city for illegally setting off fireworks. Police will issue citations as well as confiscate the fireworks. Officers in past years tended to simply issue warnings and the department didn’t have any emphasis patrols. The police reported 341 fireworks incidents in 2014, including 144 on July 4. Officers made two arrests for illegal fireworks possession. There were 16 fires caused by fireworks, mainly small brush fires.

Kent city code allows people to purchase and possess legal fireworks from June 28 to July 4 but fireworks can only be discharged from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. on July 4.

“Each year, we hear about fireworks being illegally discharged in the days leading up to the Fourth of July holiday,” Police Chief Ken Thomas said in a city media release to promote the crackdown. “We are deploying additional officers for vigorous enforcement.”

Kammerzell said in an email that the emphasis teams on the first two days will be members of the traffic unit reassigned to fireworks patrols with no overtime costs. He said there is enough overlap of patrol units on the third day to cover the emphasis teams again without overtime.

On July 4, four-hour overtime positions will be used to supplement the efforts of patrol and traffic officers as well as those staffing the Fourth of July Splash at Lake Meridian Park. On the fifth day, the department will reassign existing patrol staff as well as add two overtime shifts to create a team from noon to 10 p.m.

With most of the emphasis staffing covered by regular shifts, it will cost the department an estimated $1,980 for the overtime patrols, using an average overtime pay of $55 per hour, Kammerzell said.

People on July 4 can use legal fireworks such as sparklers, smokers, ground spinners, aerials that explode on the ground and go up in the air and other products purchased at fireworks stands around town from June 28 through July 4. The illegal items include firecrackers, M80s, bottle rockets, tennis ball bombs and other items. Officers also will enforce city laws against the reckless discharge or use of fireworks.

Councilman Jim Berrios explained at the committee meeting the reasons behind the city stepping up enforcement.

“Shortly after the Fourth of July last year citizens came to us to express concerns about fireworks before the Fourth of July and after the Fourth of July,” said Berrios, who still had a bag of fireworks debris that residents brought to a council meeting last year. “It had an impact on pets, people trying to sleep and then there is the mess it creates with fireworks debris on their property from others letting off fireworks.

“As a committee and council we are taking this very serious. There is an issue and we need to get the message across that it is illegal.”

Kent resident David McDougall testified at the committee meeting that he prefers the city ban fireworks completely similar to a couple of its neighboring cities such as Renton and Federal Way.

“I don’t understand why Kent makes itself an island that allows fireworks,” he said.

McDougall has doubts about the impact of more officers on the streets looking for those lighting off fireworks.

“You might catch a few here and there but the majority you don’t catch,” he said about the challenges to catch people in the act. “It’s hard to get proof…. The expectations on the police are unreasonable.”

Thomas told the committee that even cities with bans battle issues with the discharging of fireworks.

“Calls to Valley (the 911 center) on the Fourth of July and days leading up to it are similar in number (in Kent) to Federal Way and Renton where they have restrictions,” Thomas said. “It’s a very difficult day as far as illegal fireworks go.”

Berrios hopes the extra patrols help.

“I’d hate to think someday we will talk about eliminating fireworks on the Fourth of July,” he said. “I think this is a good plan. We’ll see how effective it is.”

To help with the enforcement, residents are asked to call 911 when fireworks are illegally discharged in their neighborhood.

For more information about fireworks laws, visit KentWA.gov/July4.