Police officers in Prague issued dozens of fines for setting off fireworks. Violations of the decree are dealt with elsewhere
“The police have solved dozens of people in the order procedure, or notified the relevant administrative body, due to the violation of the decree on the prohibition of the use of pyrotechnics,” said spokeswoman Violeta Siřišťová. On the spot, the police could impose up to ten thousand crowns, in administrative proceedings there is a risk of up to one hundred thousand.
During New Year’s Eve, Prague police officers went out from six in the evening to six in the morning to more than five hundred reports on link 158, most often about disturbances, the use of pyrotechnics in prohibited places and domestic disputes.
A rioter injured a police officer
The police also detained ten people on suspicion of misdemeanors and one person on suspicion of committing a crime of violence against an official during the New Year’s Eve celebrations. A man attacked a policeman near Wenceslas Square, who then ended up in hospital with a head injury.
City police officers also helped with surveillance in the center of Prague. “While a year ago they dealt with 234 fireworks-related offences, this year the number rose to 355. This is a more than fifty percent increase in offences. “The police officers prevented hundreds of other offenses by being on the spot and the moment they saw that people had started preparing pyrotechnics, they alerted them to the valid decree,” said Irena Seifertová, spokeswoman for Czech Television of the Prague City Police.
Prohibition of pyrotechnics in other cities
In Jihlava, representatives banned fireworks in the city’s historic zone. There, too, on New Year’s Eve, officers dealt with several violations. “The recorded offenses were solved on the spot by the officers,” said the deputy director of the Jihlava city police, Stanislav Maštera.
“The city police received a number of reports of firecrackers and fireworks. In most cases, however, the notices concerned locations where there is no generally binding ordinance prohibiting the use of fireworks,” he added.
In Zlín, the police did not have to solve the violation of the ban on the use of pyrotechnics. The decree prohibits the use of fireworks there, for example, within half a kilometer of the ZOO area or shelters for abandoned and stray animals. At bus stops, playgrounds and sports grounds within fifty meters of them.
“We dealt with only one case where fireworks startled people who were not expecting their use. However, it was not consent, there was no injury to health or damage to property, and there was no violation of the generally binding decree in question. The matter was therefore not assessed as a misdemeanor and everything ended with the persons being instructed,” said Pavel Janík, Deputy Director of the Zlín Municipal Police. At the same time, he pointed out that police officers in the city center extinguished a paper package that caught fire from fireworks.