With the aid of a dozen officers and a smartphone app that Gilroy residents used to easily report fireworks violations, police cited 60 people for the illegal use of fireworks the night of July 4.
From 4pm July 4 to 2am July 5, Gilroy Police received 241 calls for service, and 119 of these were related to the illegal use of fireworks, according to a press release.
Local citizens who used the “Nail ‘em” application on their smartphones reported 137 incidents of illegal fireworks during the same period, according to police. The app allows users to relay precise location information to officers when reporting violations.
The use of the Nail ‘em app “shortened our response times and alleviated some calls that would have normally been handled by our dispatchers,” reads the press release.
Officers wrote 17 criminal citations for fireworks violations from 4pm July 4 to 2am July 5, and issued 43 administrative citations for similar violations, police said. Officers also confiscated an unspecified amount of illegal fireworks.
Gilroy Police Department deployed 12 additional officers dedicated to enforcing fireworks violations during the July 4 evening. These officers were funded by mitigation fees added to legal fireworks sales in Gilroy, police said.
Residents can report illegal fireworks by calling the Gilroy Police non-emergency line at (408) 846-0350.
