Stockton Police Advising Residents Not To Use Guns To Ring In The New Year

At the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve, the noise begins. For some it’s horns blaring, or fireworks, and for others, it’s the sound of gunfire echoing in the night air.

But police are warning people not to greet the New Year with a bang. Those bullets can travel a mile or more, sometimes punching through roofs, or windows, and people.

Rosie Calderon with the Stockton Police Department says that celebratory gunfire is a crime.

“A lot of people don’t realize just how dangerous that can be," Calderon  says. "I mean what goes up must come down, so all those bullets are going to have to come down eventually and they could hurt or potentially kill another person.”

Calderon says Stockton is one of many cities that will use ShotSpotter with sensors placed in neighborhoods which can detect gunfire and its location to alert patrols.

“It will help our dispatchers dispatch patrol officers to those areas where ShotSpotter is picking up those shots fired and quickly get our law enforcement officials over to that area to investigate,” she says.

Calderon says extra patrols will be in place to investigate those shootings.