Illegal fireworks in La Crosse could result in ticket

Police, however, have a lot of
responsibilities on the long, party weekend

Police in La Crosse are expecting the calls.  

Hundreds of them through Monday. Calls about noisy fireworks. Many of them illegal.

But not necessarily ticketed for, says officer Brooke Pataska.

“The police department doesn’t hand out citations to every single person we see lighting those fireworks off,” she said. “Our concern is safety.”

If you’re neighbor is shooting off the fireworks and you call police, they’ll show up. Eventually.

“We do get a lot of fireworks complaints and we do try to get to them,” Pataska said. “But in addition, we do have a lot of other police calls that happen over the Fourth of July weekend and on the Fourth, as well.”

In La Crosse, like the rest of the state, without a special permit, the only fireworks that can be legally possessed or used are those that don’t explode or shoot into the air.

Sparklers, for instance, are fine. And safe(r), which is the police’s main concern. Safety.