City of Santa Rosa, CA, CivicReady Public Safety Alerts & Notifications
SRPD News Release: SRPD Confiscates Hundreds of Pounds of Fireworks, Seizes 2 Illegally Possessed Firearms, and Continues Upstaffing for Remainder of Holiday Weekend
7/5/2024 - 10:32 AM
SRPD Confiscates Hundreds of Pounds of Fireworks, Seizes 2 Illegally Possessed Firearms, and Continues Upstaffing for Remainder of the Holiday Weekend
As we head into the rest of this long holiday weekend, the Santa Rosa Police Department (SRPD) would like to remind our community about the dangers of fireworks and that all fireworks are illegal in the City of Santa Rosa and unincorporated Sonoma County. The SRPD Communications Center was flooded with calls on the Fourth of July for incidents involving illegal fireworks, alcohol-related incidents, disruptive parties, and domestic violence. Though it will take several days to analyze information related to these calls for service and to process all the paperwork related to citations, arrests, and fireworks seizures, preliminary data indicates an exceptionally busy night for the Santa Rosa Police Department.Typically, the SRPD Communications Center answers 300 to 350 non-emergency and 911 calls. We can see this number skyrocket to over 2,000 calls on the Fourth of July holiday due to illegal fireworks use and an uptick in other alcohol-related and violent crime calls. Due to the average 500% increase in calls to the Communications Center, our dispatchers must focus on efficiency rather than volume. Instead of creating thousands of redundant calls for service about fireworks in the same areas, one call for service is created for the primary location of the illegal activity, and information from subsequent callers is added to that event. This allows for more targeted enforcement by responding officers as all the information they need to address a concern is contained in one event instead of a dozen or more. On July 4, 2024, and into the early morning hours of July 5, dispatchers created 223 calls for service for neighborhood firework complaints, and within many of those events, information about numerous similar calls for each location was included.
In anticipation of the increased need for police services, SRPD provided additional staffing to address calls for service related to parties and fireworks and to conduct DUI saturation patrols. SRPD officers working with the Santa Rosa Fire Department (SRFD) confiscated hundreds of pounds of fireworks throughout the day and night. Large groups of people throughout Santa Rosa gathered to set off illegal fireworks, with MLK Park on Hendley Street having the largest concentration of people at one point, with over 200 spectators. During one incident, a male subject sustained a severely broken arm while handling fireworks at the park.
Additional staffing to respond to fireworks, parties, and alcohol-related calls was only one part of our department’s plan to address community safety concerns on the Fourth of July. Our Special Enforcement Team (SET) was working to proactively prevent violent crimes from occurring in our community. SET, developed to address the rise in illegal firearm possession and gun violence in Santa Rosa, conducted proactive patrols throughout Santa Rosa. At approximately 4:58 p.m., SET officers contacted a 16-year-old male with an outstanding arrest warrant. Officers located a 9mm handgun loaded with 17 rounds in his possession (SRPD case number 24-8039). Shortly after midnight, SET officers contacted a group of subjects drinking alcohol in a public space in the 800 block of Boyd Street. One of the subjects was found to have a 9mm handgun loaded with 12 rounds concealed in a satchel (SRPD case number 24-8046). These arrests likely prevented multiple shootings in our community.
With such a significant holiday occurring on a Thursday, we understand many people will be taking advantage of the opportunity to enjoy a long, 4-day celebratory weekend. SRPD will continue to provide additional staffing to respond to an expected increase in calls for service and needs from our community. Please help us keep Santa Rosa a safe place to live, work, and play by refraining from the use of illegal fireworks, drinking responsibly, and reporting suspicious or dangerous activity by calling 911 or the SRPD non-emergency line at 707-528-5222.
Additional information about law enforcement activity related to the Fourth of July holiday weekend will be provided early next week, after we have had an opportunity to review data collected.
Media inquiries can be made to Sgt. Patricia Seffens at 707-543-3634 or pseffens@srcity.org.
