The Dallas Police Department is taking steps to increase safety and reduce traffic congestion during the Fourth of July weekend. The department will implement a new strategy to address concerns about celebratory gunfire and illegal fireworks in certain neighborhoods.

Concerns About Celebratory Gunfire

According to the Dallas Police Department, there have been over 12,000 calls for random gunfire in the city this year. Between July 1 and July 5 of last year, there were over 5,700 calls for random gunfire. Many of these calls came from the Highland Hills area in Oak Cliff, where video from last Fourth of July shows fireworks exploding in a parking lot and guns being fired.

Joshua Southers, the manager of the Food Basket grocery store in the area, expressed concerns about the safety of his store and customers. “I’m afraid for the building to get burned to the ground or damaged or whatever,” he said. “Every year I get multiple calls in the night from the alarms going off, so it’s not good.”

Holiday Traffic and Road Closures

To address traffic safety concerns, the Dallas Police Department will implement road closures on Friday and Saturday nights. The closures will be concentrated around the FIFA Fan Fest and the fireworks at Fair Park on Friday, and around Klyde Warren Park on Saturday. Sgt. Kelvin Polk with the Dallas Police Department warned drivers not to park their vehicles on the freeway or in intermediate areas, as there will be zero tolerance for this and vehicles will be subject to towing and tickets.

Original reporting: Dallas – Ft. Worth Feed (HLL/CB) — read the source article.