With summer just around the corner, the South Gate Police Department (SGPD) is getting ready to crackdown on the use of illegal fireworks.
Last year the SGPD carried out several fireworks stings during the summer in attempt to curb their use within South Gate. This year they expect to the same and even more in an attempt to enforce a zero tolerance policy towards illegal fireworks.
“We are going to assign a member of each patrol team starting in the middle of June as the fireworks liaison officer,” said Chief Randy Davis of the SGPD during a recent City Council meeting. “That’s kind of a fancy title for fireworks guy, [their] whole shift is going to be fireworks enforcement.”
The SGPD plans on using its detective bureau to carry out undercover stings, including those from its narcotics division.
Davis told the council that the details of enforcement operations are going to be shared with news media outlets in an effort to scare away illegal firework vendors.
“When people actually see this on the news [and] see people being arrested they know at least that South gate is not the place where you want to sell illegal fireworks,” said Davis.
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