Enforcing fireworks ban logistical problem

I found myself sympathetic to Mary Schultz’s plight as evidenced in her recent letter to the editor, “Where was the fireworks ban?” I have spent the last half decade testifying before the Tumwater City Council and in these pages arguing that a proposed ban on fireworks in Tumwater would end up disappointing a lot of people.

As former fire chief John Carpenter and former police chief John Stines often observed at those same council meetings, on the 4th of July in Tumwater all first responders are completely occupied by the logistical demands of managing the festival down in the valley. They don’t have the time to respond to every discharge of fireworks. The new law is entirely reliant upon citizen compliance and in my estimation usage was down but far from minimal.

Ms. Schultz should consider herself lucky that she only had to contend with illegal fireworks, including “professional ones,” until 11 p.m. because in my neighborhood they were going off until 1:30 a.m. But here’s the worse news for Ms. Schultz: Based on the experience in many other jurisdictions, compliance probably reached its high water mark during this, the first year, of the “ban.”