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Police report: civic partnership and a new attestation tool helped reduce New Year’s fireworks impact
Summary
Chief Alex Turcotte said the department’s social media campaign and a citizen‑attestation tool tied to the city’s click‑fix reporting helped produce community partnership; staff reported 17 citizen attested complaints and an overall decrease in New Year's calls compared with the prior year.
Citrus Heights police told the City Council on Jan. 8 that a combination of public outreach, a targeted social media campaign and a citizen attestation reporting tool contributed to a relatively quieter New Year’s Eve across the city.
Chief Alex Turcotte said illegal fireworks remain a recurring safety and quality‑of‑life problem: they can start structure fires, injure people and cause distress for veterans, pets and people with sensory sensitivities. Turcotte described enforcement challenges — particularly the difficulty of locating the precise parcel that launched an aerial firework — and said officers have limited ability to observe and cite the act in the moment.
To bolster enforcement and community reporting, the department piloted a citizen attestation process tied to the city’s ClickFix/311 reporting system; the approach lets residents report incidents and attest to witnessing a violation without waiting for an officer to take a written statement in person. Turcotte said the department received 17 citizen‑attested complaints during the New Year period; staff are vetting the reports for sufficiency and are following up where appropriate. He also credited a public messaging push — promoted with the slogan You Light It, We Will Cite It — and said Sacramento Metro Fire reported a countywide 40% drop in certain service complaints and no fireworks‑related injuries on New Year’s.
Councilmembers thanked the department for what they characterized as a quieter New Year’s in many neighborhoods. Turcotte cautioned that the program is not a silver bullet and said the goal is to discourage the behavior through community reporting and the prospect of enforcement at subsequent holidays.
No formal enforcement tallies for citations were published during the meeting; the department reported a 12% decrease in overall calls for service on New Year’s compared with the prior year but noted fireworks‑specific reports rose in part because of the new reporting channels.
Turcotte said the department will continue to refine the attestation criteria and combine community reporting with targeted enforcement on repeat offenders.
