Woodland police issued more than $100,000 in illegal fireworks fines during July 4 holiday

Woodland police issued more than $110,000 in citations for illegal fireworks set off around the Fourth of July holiday, the department said.

Law enforcement gave out 33 citations the night of July 4 and early morning of July 5, which represented a more than 600% increase in tickets from the same time last year, the Woodland Police Department said in a Facebook post Saturday.

This year, the city of Woodland introduced a new ordinance that allows steeper fines for illegal fireworks. Now, police can fine $1,000 for the possession of a single illegal firework.

Two of the citations handed out were for more than $10,000. The largest ticket given that night was $34,000, according to a Woodland police spokesperson.

“The bottom line is, we heard the overwhelming majority of our community loud and clear, they do not want to hear/see illegal fireworks,” Woodland police said on Facebook.

Woodland police used a variety of tools to track down offenders on Independence Day, including the “Nail ‘em” app for the first time, which lets community members report illegal fireworks set off in their own neighborhoods. The department also had additional officers patrolling and used drones to identify where fireworks were being set off from around Woodland.

Police are continuing to comb through reports and footage and send out more citations. They informed offenders in a recent social media post: “you’ve got mail on the way.”

“Our enforcement of these laws and fines are far from over,” Woodland police said. “We continue to provide extra staffing to deal with those who continue to use illegal fireworks long past the 4th of July.”

The department called on people to keep reporting illegal fireworks by dialing the police hot line or using the Nail ‘em app.