If you light it, we’ll write it; Illegal firework usage in the Coachella Valley
The Riverside Sheriff Department said that they will go through the proper channels to determine if they can give us the information we need regarding the data usage of Illegal Firework in the Coachella Valley. Sergeant Edward Soto said, "The information you inquired of is not directly reported to the Media Information Bureau. For this reason, I will have reach out to the Thermal Station Administration to determine if the contract cities will approve the release of statistics. If approved, I will then follow-up with the Crime Analyst". Sergeant Soto did inform us that the process could take several days. We will follow up with the Riverside County Sheriff's department to receive updates.
In the meantime, Riverside County released that a team of law enforcement agencies across Riverside County shared pictures with news channel three, saying just three men from Coachella valley were found with a total of more than 18 hundred pounds. Also, one suspect had a gun and ammunition.
In Indio, the police department did make an arrest based on information, Someone selling fireworks. The PIO, Ben Guitron did share with us that they covered calls leading up to the Fourth of July. Guitron says "it affected a lot of cities in the valley. But we did our part".
He also shared with us that last year, there was a large number of complaints, as well as the year before, during COVID. Guitron says, "A matter of fact, throughout Southern California, the increase in illegal fireworks was a big deal".
In Palm Springs, Leitenient Araiza says, "the initial complaint started coming on July 2, where we got four different complaints. There was nobody located or identified or arrested". The Palm Springs police department received 29 calls of complaints over the holiday weekend.
