Long Island's July Fourth weekend tally: 52 arrested for DWI, another 11 for illegal fireworks

County police in Nassau and Suffolk arrested and charged 52 motorists for allegedly driving while intoxicated over the Fourth of July weekend and took 11 people into custody for fireworks-related infractions.

In Nassau, 17 motorists face DWI charges and in Suffolk, 35 drivers were arrested for the same offense, according to spokespeople for both departments.

By comparison, Nassau County police made 12 DWI arrests for the weekend of June 13-15 and 10 arrests on the weekend of June 20-22. The number of people in Suffolk County arrested for DWI during that period was not available late Tuesday.

The number of DWI arrests made in either county from July 4, 2024 through July 7, 2024 was not immediately available.

Nassau police received 605 calls complaining about fireworks over the three-day weekend, a spokesperson told Newsday in an email Monday. Officers arrested nine people for breaking laws relating to illegal fireworks, the spokesperson said. Suffolk police arrested two people on fireworks-related charges, a spokesperson told Newsday in an email. The Suffolk County Police Department does not tally fireworks complaints separately from other disturbances, such as noise, Newsday previously reported.

"The department's enhanced DWI patrols are evident with the DWI arrests and punctuates the department's commitment to roadway safety," Suffolk County Police Commissioner Kevin Catalina said in a statement emailed to Newsday.

Nassau police officers have raked up more fireworks-related arrests year over year compared to Suffolk, Newsday previously reported. Nassau police made 42 such arrests in 2023 and 34 last year. Suffolk police made two fireworks-related arrests in 2023 and three in 2024.

"I believe having additional officers on patrol cut down on illegal fireworks usage with only one reported injury," Catalina said of this past holiday weekend.

That injury was reported in Coram, where "a firework resulted in a facial injury" that required the victim to be transported to the hospital, a police department spokesperson told Newsday.

A firework also exploded in the hand of a 54-year-old man in Massapequa Park, while debris from a firework went in the eye of a 27-year-old man in North Valley Stream, a Nassau police spokesperson said. Information about their conditions was not available late Monday.

Police officials told Newsday last week enforcing fireworks laws can be difficult, and such calls often take a backseat to vehicle crashes and other incidents that occur during some of the busiest nights of the year.

Officials and spokespeople for police departments in Long Beach, the Town of East Hampton and the Town of Southold told Newsday on Monday their officers made no arrests related to fireworks over the period from Friday to Sunday. The three departments each reported a pair of DWI arrests. In an email to Newsday, East Hampton Police Chief Michael Sarlo described the long holiday as "traditionally our busiest call volume weekend of the year."

Over the three-day period, Sarlo said, East Hampton police officers issued 83 traffic summons and 16 town ordinance tickets for various town code violations, from open alcohol containers in public to littering.

"[On] summer weekends, the department puts out supplemental staffing on overtime shifts during the overnight hours Friday through Sunday," Sarlo said, adding that the town’s population triples during the summer season.

"Foot patrols in the Montauk and Amagansett business district focus on quality of life concerns and traffic safety," he said, "while officers on state grant STOP DWI shifts supplement our traffic enforcement efforts throughout the township."