A fireworks device left in the alley between the 500 blocks of Columbia and York avenues in Lansdale's West Ward.
The Lansdale Public Safety Committee once again addressed concerns about fireworks being set off in the borough, following an email sent from Borough Councilwoman Carrie Hawkins-Charlton regarding a drive-by fireworks incident late last month.
“Basically, there has been some concern about the fireworks, the prevalence and frequency of occurrence and they wanted us to address it,” said Lansdale Borough Police Chief Michael Trail.
Trail said that he used crime mapping software to create a “heat map” that shows the location and frequency of fireworks incidents (click here to see the map). In total, Lansdale Police have responded to 155 incidents involving fireworks over the last year, with many of them being centered around the borough’s west ward.
“I wanted to see if there is any validity to the issue, and unfortunately there is some validity to it,” said Trail. “One of the things I wanted to see was how we compared to other communities. That was a drastic comparison. There’s not a lot of communities in Montgomery County [with this issue]. Aside from a couple small blips in Ambler, Hatboro and Lower Salford, no one has these numbers.”
Though the map showed a largely disproportionate amount of incidents in Lansdale, Trail also cautioned that the disparity could be due to the way other municipalities report their fireworks incidents.
Still, Trail said he viewed fireworks as a two-pronged issue, with the first being families and residents shooting off fireworks within the legal restrictions, and a second, more nefarious group, that is driving around, setting off professional-grade fireworks and then fleeing the scene.
The incident reported by Harkins-Charlton would fall under the latter category. During the overnight hours of March 24, someone placed what police described as professional-grade fireworks in the alley between the 500 blocks of Columbia and York avenues. The suspect then ignited the fireworks and drove away from the scene.
Trail said the police department plans to implement new patrols, place more bike officers on the streets and target the enforcement geographically. Additionally, Trail said his department will roll out a social media campaign to remind residents of the legality of fireworks.
Both Harkins-Charlton and Mayor Garry Herbert stated that they believe the actors are motivated by seeing the alarmed posts on Facebook following the incidents. Typically, when the incidents occur, a stream of “Did you hear that?” posts occur on Facebook from nearby residents on their personal pages, or in local groups such as the Citizens for the Revitalization of Lansdale.
“They’re really there to see the reaction online,” said Herbert. “One of the things we thought about discussing with the public is ‘don’t give fire the air.’”
To that extent, Herbert said he hopes that residents refrain from giving any attention to the actors involved in the incidents, and Hawkins-Charlton stated that she has spoken with the administrators of the Citizens for the Revitalization of Lansdale in order to make sure that posts about fireworks are deleted immediately.
“We don’t want to give people more attention, but we want to let residents know that council and police take the issue seriously,” said Hawkins-Charlton.
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