More bucks for your bang: Elgin raises penalties for illegal fireworks

With Fourth of July just around the corner, Elgin is ready to fine you more when you mess with illegal fireworks.

The city council amended the penalty scale of its fireworks ordinance to raise the fines for repeat offenders, upping the maximum penalty from $750 to now as high as $1,500 for a third offense within a year.

The council also made it mandatory for anyone who receives a citation to appear in the city's administrative adjudication "court."

The measure won unanimous approval Wednesday so the city can start enforcing ticketing in the run-up to Fourth of July.

"We do a lot to try and curtail fireworks complaints," Police Chief Ana Lalley said. "We'd like to have it in place for the officers to be able to have something they can use."

The ordinance formerly authorized fines of $100 to $750 upon conviction for use of illegal fireworks, which include firecrackers, bottle rockets and other projectiles and explosive material.

The new fine schedule can range from counseling to a $750 fine on the first offense, $150 to $750 on the second, $500 to $1,500 on the third and $1,500 on the fourth in any 12-month period.

Police say there have been more than 3,500 calls for fireworks in the last five years, almost a third of which came in 2020. Though complaints are down by half since, it's still twice what it was pre-pandemic.

The department has taken a zero-tolerance approach of late, proclaiming so in social media campaigns and letters to past violators.

They'll do the same to promote the heftier fines.

The mandatory hearings, Lalley said, "allows for a little bit more accountability. It spurs the conversation to let people know that the ordinance is there, that it's illegal and that your neighbors are calling and complaining."