BEND, OR-- Personal fireworks are no longer allowed in Portland, Bend and Depoe Bay, Lincoln City’s ban took effect Thursday and a temporary ban is in place for the summer in Wasco County.

Despite receiving 80 emails to its new tipline, Sheila Miller says Bend Police did not issue any citations Monday, "The Fourth of July is our number one day for calls for service and there are a lot of really big calls. We’re being called to fights and drunk drivers and a lot of really dangerous situations."

Portland Fire’s Terry Foster tells KATU News because staff aren’t available to respond to every complaint, the ban serves more as an investigative tool. "We are enforcing to the extent we can. When we respond and there’s a fireworks-related fire, we do investigate it and we try to find out what happened; and if there’s legal action that needs to happen, then we take that action."

Miller agrees, saying BPD will use information in investigations, "We also could use those to determine where we need to do more patrols, that sort of thing. But, honestly, we do not have the staffing and ability to go out to every illegal fireworks call." She tells KBND News, "There seems to be a prevailing theory in Bend that there are no rules on the Fourth of July. We had this gigantic crowd of teenagers, almost entirely under age, at Pioneer Park and then Columbia Park, who were openly drinking, highly intoxicated in the middle of the day, fighting, leaving huge messes in our parks and just generally displaying really bad behavior."

It can be difficult to catch someone in the act, "By the time our officer has been able to divert from something more serious, they may not still be being shot off. Even if they were, it’s hard to identify who the person in a crowd is who should be cited."

Officials in both Portland and Bend say there’s been a big drop in fireworks-caused fires and related calls since bans were imposed.