Hollister’s police chief hopes to solve the problem with so many residents shooting off illegal fireworks July 4, especially in light of Saturday night’s incident in which five children were injured by some of the explosives.
Westrick said the way things are set up now, the city lacks necessary police resources to handle the fireworks problem that intensifies greatly July 4.
“Law enforcement doesn’t do fireworks,” Westrick said. “That’s just not our forte.”
But the chief wants to look at possible changes to help curb the problem, which led the injuries to five children including one in critical condition shortly after the Saturday night incident on Brigantino Drive. A 35-year-old Hollister man, Shawn G. Bourdet, was arrested and accused of being responsible for the fireworks incident.
Westrick said he’s going to look into options for training and whether the city can explore temporarily bringing in special fire personnel to help with enforcement of illegal fireworks.
“I’m going to see if I can solve that,” Westrick said. “There has to be a way to make it more efficient. I already know we don’t have the manpower for it. I’m going to try to find a way so we do have the manpower for it.”
The chief said police on patrol during the night of July 4 had other calls to attend to outside of all the reports of illegal fireworks.
“I’m thinking the most efficient way to handle fireworks and explosives and that kind of stuff is to get the expertise I need, either bring in experts to help or get officers training they need,” he said.
He went on: “Maybe there’s other people that are doing it better than us. Maybe we need to find out best practices and apply them here.”
