Watsonville had 141 calls for service on Tuesday, including 51 calls regarding illegal fireworks. This is in contrast to Watsonville’s 73 fireworks calls in 2016 and its160 calls for service last year.
Santa Cruz Police Department spokeswoman Joyce Blaschke said the holiday’s timing during the workweek helped reduce crowds in the city. The police responded to 467 calls for service on Tuesday with 104 of them related to fireworks calls between 4 p.m. Tuesday and 12:45 a.m. Wednesday. Illegal fireworks were reported throughout the city on Independence Day. The city had 41 triple-fine citations, which were mostly alcohol and fireworks-related and every available officer was on patrol Tuesday night.
There were 70 Sheriff’s deputies on duty during the holiday and they documented 50 citations, 28 fireworks violations and 20 alcohol- related violations between noon Tuesday to 5 a.m. Wednesday. Overall, 19 people were arrested by the sheriff’s office during that time. County beaches and the Live Oak area had the most fireworks calls but there were no reports of blazes created by fireworks in the County.
