What does LPD do or plan to do about the use of illegal fireworks within the city limits? Would they consider educating residents that all personal fireworks are illegal in advance of summer holidays?
Chief Douglas Stephens: Yeah. Fireworks, the bane of my existence. Yes. I feel your pain on the fireworks, and I wish that there was a way that we could do something more than what we can do. I mean, we can take enforcement action. It’s challenging when the whole block is detonating, for lack of a better term. Obviously, it’s worse always around the 4th of July, and I truly understand the frustration. We get a lot of complaints on fireworks. We do the best that we can getting out there and warning people. Then as a last resort, we’ll take enforcement action. But it’s just a challenging, no-win situation all the way around, and we really try to do our best.
I think there’s been a lot of education. Most people know that anything that leaves the ground and most things that don’t leave the ground are illegal. With fire bands and whatnot, it’s more complicated every year. Excuse me, every year. But we’ll continue to try to do our best on that and hope… I think part of the challenge this year, unique to this year, was the number of professional shows that were canceled? So I think a lot of people put on their own professional show on their cul-de-sac, and that caused a lot of problems. But we’ll try to do better.