Preliminary Police Data Show Drones Caught 59 Riversiders Lighting Illegal Fireworks

Fifty-nine people in the city of Riverside were cited for illegal firework use during the Fourth of July weekend after being spotted by a police drone, according to a preliminary count by the Riverside Police Department (RPD).

Councilmember Sean Mill said an additional 24 were cited through “boots on the ground” efforts, which also led to the seizure of 51 pounds of fireworks. In total, he said, the city cited 83 people July 3-4. 

“Hopefully, next year, these 83 people won’t be shooting off illegal fireworks because they’ll see that we’re serious about enforcement,” Mill said. 

It’s the second year the city has deployed enforcement teams equipped with drones to spot and record residents violating its fireworks ban during Independence Day festivities. 

Councilmember Philip Falcone, who spent the Fourth of July afternoon at the downtown fire station, said some residents might not yet be aware they were cited until the fine arrives by mail in the coming weeks.

The enforcement team focused on evidence collection this year, he said, in an effort to avoid creating tense confrontations. He explained how he and the battalion chief responded to a call about an “insane amount of illegal fireworks going off.” After verifying the activity, they proceeded to call an inspector who collected evidence to issue a citation at a later date.

“They don’t necessarily realize, I think, that it is us verifying the address and illegal fireworks there,” Falcone said. “Just because they don’t get it at that moment doesn’t necessarily mean they’re off the hook.”

Detective Steven Espinosa, RPD’s public information officer, said the department was still awaiting a final count for the weekend. He said official data would be released soon. 

RPD reported that it cited 65 people last year, with each citation carrying a $1,500 fee. About half of those have been fully paid, amounting to about $60,000 so far. Fourteen residents tried to appeal, RPD Lt. Chad Chinchilla said during the June 16 council meeting, but none were successful because of the clear video evidence taken by the drones. 

A mix of drone pilots, code enforcement officers, arson investigators and safety inspectors, made up the teams deployed during the Fourth of July weekend. The teams were able to survey for a longer period of time this year, Chinchilla added, because the department received upgraded drones with longer battery life. 

“As the technology gets better, and as RPD and our fire department gets better acquainted with how to use this, I think we’ll only see more success,” Mill said. “Hopefully that will lead to deterring people from acting inappropriately and doing things that endanger not only the lives of their neighbors but their friends and themselves.”

Falcone added that this year was calmer compared to 2025, at least from the downtown station’s perspective. During his time at the station, he said the team only responded to small incidents but did not see any active fires. However, he did not want to draw a correlation to the city’s enforcement efforts as other neighborhoods reported tons of firework activity. 

Mill said the program was created in an effort to stop people from lighting fireworks in the hopes the city could avoid the destruction from another large wildfire like the 2024 Hawarden fire, which was determined to be caused by fireworks. 

“The day after the Hawarden fire, [I was] talking to some of our firefighters, and they were physically distraught and very emotional over the fact that people lost their homes,” Mill said. “I think the program will help us curb behavior.”