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HomeMy WebLinkAboutIR 10546 INFORMAL REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS No. 21-10546 To the Mayor and Members of the City Council March 9, 2021 ram° Page 1 of 4 i i7 Y rrn SUBJECT: CITY OF FORT WORTH ILLEGAL FIREWORKS RESPONSE Illegal fireworks are a concern for the Fort Worth Fire and Police Department due to the dangers involved for injured persons and the potential for damaged property. The Fire and Police Departments dedicate specific patrol units using additional resources on overtime during high suspected illegal fireworks activity. Units are assigned to respond citywide to calls for service and attempt to serve all areas and council districts equally; however, some locations are deemed unsafe to enter for fire personnel by the Fort Worth Police/Fire Department. In the areas deemed unsafe, additional police personnel must respond to make the area safe prior to fire personnel entering the area to address the issue/problem. Where life safety or significant property damage issues were reported, every attempt is made to intervene after a thorough risk analysis and inventory of available fire and police resources. o Primary Goal: To ensure Fire Operations and Fort Worth Police Department resources are available to respond to emergencies and high priority calls for service. o Firework Hotline: A specific telephone "hotline" was dedicated to report fireworks. The intent of this dedicated phone line was to prevent the 9-1-1 system from being the primary contact method for the public which would have placed the 9-1-1 system at risk of call overload and increase risk of call delays for actual 9-1-1 emergencies. o Educational Efforts: The Fort Worth Fire and Police Departments spend a considerable amount of time attempting to educate the public of the dangers and prohibition of possession, sales, and use of fireworks prior to the New Year's Eve and 4t" of July holidays. Both departments utilize their social media platforms as well as one on one meetings with apartment complex owners/managers and neighborhoods that have historically known to have heavy illegal fireworks use. Additionally, messages about illegal fireworks are sent out through the City of Fort Worth communication channels as well as news media outlets. o Enforcement Objective: The response is multi-faceted and scalable depending on several factors. While there is an Arson and police response portion of the plan, it is worth noting such initiatives as communications and 911 system management, crowd and traffic control, resource management, heat mapping, social media, are all considerations that are included in the plan leading up to the holiday. o Enforcement Concerns: Firefighters are not armed, but are being asked to perform enforcement activities. Additionally, there is a real concern about over-policing in certain areas of our city and enforcement efforts for illegal fireworks can damage the relationships the police have with the community for a low level Class C offense, a citation. Of key importance is the correlation of degree of enforcement to probable use of force. The unit has experienced that the more aggressive the enforcement, the greater likelihood of a use of force incident, injury to a citizen, or injury to an officer. This question is of particular importance, when evaluating a city ordinance violation, a citation, against the backdrop of an officer involved use of force incident. ISSUED BY THE CITY MANAGER FORT WORTH, TEXAS INFORMAL REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS No. 21-10546 To the Mayor and Members of the City Council March 9, 2021 ram° Page 2 of 4 i i7 Y rrn SUBJECT: CITY OF FORT WORTH ILLEGAL FIREWORKS RESPONSE Due to the number of calls, the Police and Fire Departments are unable to respond to all complaints. We did not have enough staff members to respond to all 5900 calls during the week of the 4t" of July holiday in 2020 as well as the 1129 calls during the three days of the New Year's holiday in 2021 . Just for reference, there were 2836 calls for service for illegal fireworks in 2019. Therefore, a triage system was established to prioritize the enforcement response during the New Year's Eve and 4t" of July holidays. The priority response of the teams were for the fires or injuries caused as a result of the use of fireworks. All other calls were determined to be lower priority. Below are the number of calls for the 4t" of July and New Year's holidays. Calls by Council District for the week of the 4th of July: Council Member Jul 1 Jul 2 Jul 3 Jul Jul 5 Jul 6 Grand total 2-Carlos Flores 4 29 169 420 41 13 675 3-Brian Byrd 739 136 358 50 15 %5 4-Cary Moon 8 18 127 352 31 6 542 5-Gyna Bivens 15 35 202 433 51 21 767 6-Jungus Jordan 4 52 276 669 112 14 1.126 7-Dennis Shingleton 10 46 119 512 22 1 710 6-Kelly Allen Gray 14 75 245 4,33 W 14 922 9-Ann Zadeh 4 16 154 ND 70 16 629 (Empty) - 1 2 10 2 1 16 Grand total 66 311 1.430 3.605 479 101 5.992 Calls received during the three days of the New Year's holiday: December 31 , 2020 452 January 1 , 2021 423 January 2, 2021 254 Beyond the normal calls for service for illegal fireworks during these two holidays, the City of Fort Worth, City Council, Police and Fire Department receive numerous complaints after the fact about the lack of enforcement and the lack of concern for the safety and well-being of our community members. Unfortunately, we spend an inordinate amount of time attempting to answer the concerns from our citizens when we are faced with limited resources to address this ever growing problem. The Council requested an update on how Fire and Police respond to Illegal Fireworks, and to share creative options on reducing the number of service calls and complaints. ISSUED BY THE CITY MANAGER FORT WORTH, TEXAS INFORMAL REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS No. 21-10546 To the Mayor and Members of the City Council March 9, 2021 ram° Page 3 of 4 i i7 Y rrn SUBJECT: CITY OF FORT WORTH ILLEGAL FIREWORKS RESPONSE Other Cities responses: We reached out to San Antonio, Houston, and Dallas. Each of these departments are having the same challenges that we face. They are concerned about being heavy handed on enforcement and they do not have the personnel to answer the large number of calls they receive during these two holidays. Recommendations for Improvement • Continue to work with Fort Worth Police Department to develop a coordinated response plan to reduce illegal fireworks in high incident areas. A coordinated response was the most effective prevention and enforcement strategy used. There were still areas of high activity and high crowd tensions that rendered aggressive enforcement strategies ineffective due to crowd and officer safety concerns. • Collaborate with the Texas Department of Transportation for education and enforcement message displays on highway electronic information boards for vehicles traveling into the City from areas that sell fireworks. • Continue fireworks public education in the areas of fireworks injury prevention. • Explore methods to gain citizen and neighborhood association participation in reducing illegal fireworks use: cell phone video bank, neighborhood association fines for the use of illegal fireworks, early education at school and community show and tell events. • Conduct policy discussions on efforts to place additional cost share on those that purchase fireworks for use in Fort Worth. • Collaborate with area fire and police departments to share education and enforcement action planning. • Review the goals and objectives of the Fireworks Detail and JEOC operations during pre- planning meetings with Fire and Police Executive Staffs. • Discussion on increasing enforcement. Increasing enforcement has challenges related to responding to the number of call and trying to de-escalate issues around confiscation and citations. Creative ideas or suggestions: The response from each of the city departments have remained the same for many years and we continue to receive the same complaints about illegal fireworks after the holidays are over about the lack of response to the issue. Additionally, the community questions who and why certain groups receive citations, have fireworks confiscated, and/or the fire and police response ISSUED BY THE CITY MANAGER FORT WORTH, TEXAS INFORMAL REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS No. 21-10546 To the Mayor and Members of the City Council March 9, 2021 ram° Page 4 of 4 i i7 Y rrn SUBJECT: CITY OF FORT WORTH ILLEGAL FIREWORKS RESPONSE compared to other areas of the city. When looking for a creative solution to this problem, we need to understand the limited impact we are having with the community on this issue. We are not meeting the expectations of some and other feel they receive too much attention from the fire and police department. A possible suggestion would be to have Fireworks Zones within the City of Fort Worth. Each of the designated areas would be in large unpopulated areas and/or in locations next to bodies of water for everyone's safety. These areas could be staffed by fire and police personnel for safety of all attendees in case something did occur. These areas would be locations that the community could go to and fire off their fireworks freely without fire or police intervention as long as they were being safe. Although this is contrary to our current policies, the police and fire departments cannot keep up the calls for service during this time and we struggle with the perception of over policing in certain communities. Although there are many logistical issues that need to be worked out, this approach might change the mindset of our community if they know their families have a place to go to shoot off fireworks in a legal way. I believe if we partner with the community leaders for recommended locations, to get the word out about this initiative, and leverage those relationships to gain compliance, the perception about our enforcement efforts for illegal activities in the community could diminish because we are giving the community a way to enjoy the New Years and 4t" of July holiday with fireworks. Both departments are open to ideas, but we need to be realistic that our current enforcement efforts are having limited or no impact in curbing this illegal activity. If you have any questions concerning this information, please contact Fire Chief Jim Davis, at 817-392-6801 or iim.davis(a)fortworthtexas.gov or Assistant Chief Robert Alldredge at 817-392- 4131 or robert.alldredge(a�fortworthtexas.gov. David Cooke City Manager ISSUED BY THE CITY MANAGER FORT WORTH, TEXAS