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Riverside says drone pilot doubled fireworks citations on July 4; police and fire detail operations

Riverside City Council · July 15, 2025
AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

City staff told council the July 4 drone/patrol pilot more than doubled fireworks citations (65 vs. 24 previously), aided in identifying hotspot locations and generated 14 administrative citations by arson investigators; council discussed resource limits and neighborhood coverage gaps.

City of Riverside fire and police staff reported to the City Council on July 15 that a new drone enforcement pilot and concentrated operational response substantially expanded the city's fireworks enforcement and response capacity during the July 4 holiday.

Fire Department operations lead Brian Gazzetta said July 4 saw 160 calls for service citywide — roughly 30% above a typical day — with 76 calls during the evening fireworks window and 20 significant calls including vegetation and two structure fires. The department…

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