AnonymousSource: Santa Barbara Police Department
July 4th falling over a holiday weekend may have exacerbated general criminal activity. The Santa Barbara Police Department Combined Communications Center fielded a 45% increase in calls for service when compared to the five-year average for the 4th of July. A total of fifty-one police reports were documented over the two-day period.
In all, local police addressed 475 calls for service July 4th through July 5th. Sixty of those calls were constituents worried about their neighbor launching high-powered mortar fireworks. A total of 158 calls were fireworks-related. The five-year average for fireworks-related calls is approximately 40.
Twenty calls for service reported loud house parties where revelers were not adhering to public health directives.
The City also saw a rise in violent and serious felonies during the holiday weekend – 11 total. Four of those unique felonies involved an assault with a deadly weapon. Additionally, Police responded to a hit and run with injuries in the downtown area as well as three grand theft investigations.
And we didn’t even bother to call on our neighborhood fireworks yahoo, because, although we’d love it if this butthole was fined up the wazoo, we figured the police had enough to do. So . . . add that creep’s and so many other unreported fireworks illegal activity to the rest.
We didn’t bother to call on our neighbors either because we actually like our neighbors and the fireworks were great.
Why on earth would I whine about my neighbor firing off mortars? I’d grab a six pack and head on over to his yard! And who cares if a bunch of people down the block that I don’t even know are having a party without following public health guidelines? Really guys, enjoy the variety in your fellow peeps and stop trying to police everyone’s behavior.
I’m SHOCKED. Shocked to hear that fireworks is going on here in Santa Batbara!
I think anyone with ears KNEW the police were going to be receiving a high volume of calls over the 4th.
Common sense isn’t common and either you care about others or you don’t. Too bad there’s no way to put those who consider themselves rugged individualists all in one area and let them party-hardy, pay cash for any medical treatment they require, and knock each other off, if it comes to that.
We all have to live together. We all irritate our neighbors to some degree so we can be thankful they do not report us. I listen to rock music when I work in the back yard. I am sure my neighbors can hear it. I do not call the police for endless barking dogs, or the guy who revs his motorcycle every morning at 8:00a.m. , or the neighbors insanely bright yard lights that you can see from the moon, or when their contractors start banging around before 8:00 am. etc. Some fireworks are illegal so yes you could call the police but it may a time to be tolerant neighbor.
You must be the neighbor everyone is calling about. No other way to read it.
Do those rugged individualists know about Lake Havasu? From the stories I’ve heard, that is the place for them.
11 out of 475 calls for violent felonies. Are these the only calls that require an armed police response? In LA was more like 8% of the calls. Is there a chance to revamp the department and maybe save some money based on this data?