LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — While people get ready to ring in the new year, law enforcement wants to remind everyone to keep their eyes and ears open for fireworks and gunshots on New Year's Eve.
"It can be pretty intense where we're inundated with non-emergency as well as emergency calls," Director of 911 Communications in Little Rock Juana Green said.
Green said last New Year's Eve they saw a 20 percent call increase because of gunshot and firework reports.
"That's an increase on our daily intake of calls of maybe slightly over 1200, or nearly 1200 calls a day," Green said.
According to Green, there will be around nine phone operators handling calls on New Year's Eve, which is a larger staff than usual.
"Typical staffing is maybe five or six people," Green said.
Fireworks and gunfire are prohibited within Little Rock city limits, so people are encouraged to report them. However, not all reports should go to 911.
"We always try to educate the public to call 911 for life-threatening emergencies," Green said.
Green said gunshots can fall into that category, but reports of fireworks should be directed to the non-emergency email address (lrpdfireworksviolations@littlerock.gov).
"We have set up an email address for the public to report those firework incidents," Green said.
Fireworks are also prohibited in Benton and Conway.
Each department has its own non-emergency line to report fireworks within city limits.
"Our priority is 911," Green said. "We want to be able to get everyone the help they need as quickly as possible."
Green asks everyone to be patient considering the influx of calls.
"It's going to be a high call volume," Green said. "We're going to get to those calls as quickly as we can."
The non-emergency phone number for the Little Rock Police Department is 501-371-4829.