The city of Riverside and the Riverside Police Department (RPD) are once again preparing to deploy drones throughout the Fourth of July weekend to enforce the city’s fireworks ban.
“We’re going to be doing the relatively same program this year,” RPD Lt. Chad Chinchilla said at the June 16 Riverside City Council meeting. “It was very successful last year.”
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The city first implemented the new strategy during last year’s Fourth of July festivities, sending out five enforcement teams equipped with the new technology in neighborhoods with a history of illegal firework activity.
This year, RPD will again deploy five drone-equipped teams made up of two pilots and one code enforcement officer. Chinchilla said the city’s fire department will work in conjunction with RPD, creating up to five contact teams with either an arson investigator or safety inspector.
And while the manpower will be the same, Chinchilla said they will be able to survey a much larger region due to improvements to the department’s drone equipment.
Council members Clarissa Cervantes and Steven Robillard requested the addition of areas throughout the city for increased monitoring, including high fire risk areas and the Sycamore Canyon region.
“I want to try not to be so harsh, because I know y’all have a huge city to cover,” Cervantes said. “Just wanted to make sure we can keep the neighborhood safe up there, and just have heard the pleas and cries from my constituents asking to please be considered as well.”
Last year, the city’s enforcement teams used the drones to pinpoint fireworks’ origins and captured video evidence later used to issue $1,500 citations to residents. The effort resulted in 65 citations, according to a city statement, nearly triple the number from the previous year.
Only two of the citations were dropped, according to Chinchilla, and about half of those have been paid totalling almost $60,000 collected that year.
“Fourteen were appealed,” Chinchilla said. “But my understanding is none of those appeals held because the state of the evidence that we have in the video is just too good.”
Leading up to the holiday, the city has launched its annual effort to educate residents about the fireworks ban and potential fines through social media posts, advertisements and on its website.
The city plans to hold two Fourth of July fireworks displays simultaneously beginning at 9 p.m. One will be held at La Sierra Park and the other will be at Mt. Rubidoux.
The city also plans to hold two drone shows: the first at La Sierra Park on June 17 and the second at Fairmount Park on July 1.
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