Calls to Sacramento police related to Fourth of July fireworks increased by more than 11 percent in 2018, but it could have been worse.
This year the department received 1,065 calls from June 27 to July 4, including more than 600 calls on July Fourth, compared to 955 in 2017.
That was even with a new task force collecting more than a ton of illegal fireworks in the Sacramento area over the 40 days leading up the holiday.
Sacramento Police, Sacramento Fire, Sacramento County Sheriff's and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agencies collected 2,333 pounds of illegal fireworks through the task force.
"They conducted three different undercover operations,” said Vance Chandler with Sacramento Police Department. “They served two search warrants. They made 13 misdemeanor cite-and-release arrests, three felony arrests. They advised 80 different citizens."
The task force also set up a two-day amnesty program for people to drop off illegal fireworks, no questions asked.
In the course of the investigations officers also seized seven guns, 39 containers of butane and an ounce-and-a-half of methamphetamine.
Chandler says the task force was formed at the direction of Sacramento City Council members Rick Jennings and Eric Guerra.
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