Tuesday, July 5, 2011

What a difference

Lincoln's fireworks ordinance was liberalized this year, basically to reflect the reality of what otherwise law-abiding citizens were really doing: shooting off a lot of inch-and-a-half firecrackers that were heretofore illegal. Insight of the new law, I wondered what would happen to the number of complaints the police receive about fireworks. Here's the data on Incident Code 12341-DISTURBANCE/FIREWORKS for the week running from 0001 on June 28th to 0500 on July 5th:

2011  -  319
2010  -  502
2009  -  501
2008  -  557
2007  -  572

That's a reduction of 40% in 2011 from the average of the preceding four years.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, so lessening restrictions led to fewer complaints. Who would have thought.

Anonymous said...

I have a different take than 9:04. I heard significantly less boom boom (not that kind of boom boom) around town, compared to a year ago on the 3rd and 4th. My hunch is that people are tighter with discretionary spending, and were spending less on fireworks. Official unemployment is supposedly steady, but underemployment (and reduced income/benefits) is up a bit, as well as people being tighter with what they have, perhaps due to less confidence regarding the future.

Being a city official, can you tell us what the sales tax revenue was for fireworks sellers for 2010 and 2011 during the legal sales period? The numbers for 2011 might not be in yet, I realize.

Also, how about working fire incidents with fireworks as a determined or suspected cause?

Steve said...

Hard to believe, since it seemed there were more and larger fireworks shot off for more nights than in previous years around my neighborhood. Maybe people just got tired of complaining or left town to get away from all the noise.

Anonymous said...

I have ONE neighbor that would set off one HUGE firecracker about once an hour from 9:00 PM to 4:00 AM. It would rattle the windows and every dog in the neighborhood would start barking. I wonder how many neighbors are cleaning doggie poo off of the carpets today?
Gun Nut

ARRRRG!!!! said...

Glad to know my fireworks were legal this year.

Tom Casady said...

Steve,

That's interesting, because in my neighborhood, the illegal pre-July 3rd stuff seemed much less. Might just be the changing demographics of the street, though. Some of the kids have gotten older, and seem to be more interested in members of the opposite sex and less interested in blowing stuff up.

Anonymous said...

I don't think your drop in CFS has anything to do with changes in the city ordinance. I think it is just that citizens realize the inability of law enforcement to police the scofflaws during this holiday. There was definitely no drop off in my neighborhood of those who chose to ignore the laws.

I had hoped the difficulty in getting to Missouri might cause a drop off in the noise, but alas, it was not to be. The proof is in the driveway and on the street in front of the houses. Sometimes I think we should prosecute the home owners based on that evidence instead of requiring the police to observe each violation.

I used to enjoy the activities on Independence day, but as with most things, the excessive "celebration" over a week's period of time has taken from the specialness of the events. Most of the people who are making the "noise" while celebrating the holiday don't even know the significance of the date, what document made the declaration they are celebrating or what day it was signed.

Anonymous said...

Mr. Director-I heard a news item locally that some emergency callers couldn't get through to 911 operators because of the volume of people jamming the lines with non-emergency fireworks complaints. Since you are now in charge of your 911 operation, I'm wondering how difficult it would be to set up and publicize another number for clear non-emergency calls. Just food for thought. If you call 411 they can't seem to figure this out. How about 711?

256

Anonymous said...

just shows how stupid some laws are that are on the books. abolish the stupidity in the laws...use common sense...this is one instance where common sense FINALLY prevailed in this conservative state.

Tom Casady said...

6:28-

You brought up something I hadn't thought of: the impact of the Missouri river flooding. It's normally an hour to the Missouri fireworks warehouses. This year, it's a couple of hours. This has probably made a big impact on the road trips of Beavis and Friend to buy illegal 'works in Mizzou.

256-

Weird thing in Lincoln, in that we've actually got citizens who understand that you don't call 911 to report the neighbor's dog taking his daily constitutional in your yard. In thousands of cities, local officials have had to implement and promote an alternative "non-emergency" to 911 (the usual choice is "311"). Not much of a problem in Lincoln, where the local populace seems to be perfectly content to call the non-emergency line of 402.441.6000.

Knock on wood, we don't seem to have the huge problem of inappropriate 911 calls that most cities seem to suffer from (not that we don't get some doozies, however).

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Tom Casady said...

8:12,

If it weren't for those darned democratically-elected officials, you and me would be able to impose the laws we want, which would be much smarter than those the Colonials enact.

George.

Anonymous said...

The very loud booms were likely homemade - I heard about them second-hand and even witnessed them being made. I must be oblivious or maybe too sheltered, but I didn't know sparklers could do that... the neighborhood seemed just as noisy this year.

Anonymous said...

Mr. Director-Thanks. It seems that we don't have a single number to call. When 411 is dialed the caller needs to be really specific as to which "bureau" to call and even then there are problems. I'm glad your system is working well. We had witnesses at the scene of a serious injury accident that couldn't get through on 911 and after several minutes drove to a fire station to request EMS. Of course the media picked up the story. Thanks for your answer.

256

Steve said...

I don't even know what's legal any more, and what isn't, when it comes to fireworks (and I don't really care). My guess is, based on Lincoln's previously strict bans, that even now, about 90% of the stuff I saw and heard going off was still illegal. I don't mind the sound for a couple of days a year, and I enjoy watching them. I would never waste my own money on buying them when I can sit back and watch everyone else's. It's the mess the next morning that is most annoying.

On another note, I heard Lincoln chose to have it's "official" fireworks display on Saturday night this year. In my opinion, that was a stupid decision, but what was even worse was that they chose to spend the money on fireworks at all, given the current monetary crisis.

Anonymous said...

My one instance of trying to call a non-emergency line to report a hit and run car incident in Omaha had their dispatcher tell me to call 911. I told them it wasn't an emergency, no injuries, etc. and they got kinda testy and told me to call 911. So I did. Really seemed weird to me to waste 911 space on that, esp. since Omaha has a lot more 911-worthy incidents than Lincoln.

Anonymous said...

They do that in the Omaha area because there are a lot more boundaries that determine proper jurisdiction and if something is on a roadway, it's generally properly routed to the correct agency by dialing 911 in that geographic area. May have been unneccesary and seemingly clear in your situation, but often times it helps unmuddy the waters.