SOUTH FULTON, Ga. — Many of us will be celebrating the July 4th holiday with food, friends, and fireworks. South Fulton Police have a special team in place to keep you safe.
Police in the City of South Fulton have their "React team" ready to go for July 4th. The officers are specially trained and have gear like shields in case of any major incidents.
Fireworks can be beautiful, but City of South Fulton Police Major Marcus Dennard wants people to know the importance of using them correctly.
“All week long, we’ve been putting out posts on Facebook and social media in regard to safety," Dennard said. "We’re asking if you celebrate, you do it in measures that you won’t get injured, or we won’t have any fatalities or injuries as a result of these celebrations.”
The city has a special response team, similar to the team used at Rick Ross' June car show.
“We’ve actually prepared a team, a response team, that will be on call during the peak times of fireworks," Dennard said. "This team will be prepared to respond to the city in the event of an emergency.”
South Fulton allows people to shoot off fireworks on July 4th until 11:59 p.m. You can get a citation after that.
“Once patrol is dispatched to a call about fireworks or a call of seeing a person shooting off fireworks, they’ll actually pull up on that individual and educate them on the safety of these fireworks," Dennard said.
Dennard also wants people to know you can be charged with the illegal discharge of a weapon for celebratory gunfire.
“Sometimes people do celebratory firing. They don’t understand when they fire in the air, it comes down twice that speed, and it may hit an innocent person," Dennard said.
More than 10,000 people were injured, and 11 people died from fireworks in 2022, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission's annual fireworks report.