NANTUCKET – Despite over over 27,000 beach visits over the course of Independence Day weekend, Nantucket authorities said they had plenty of coverage and few reported safety incidents across the island.
Police Chief William Pittman said that calls for intoxicated persons were up this year, but added that’s a sign of more diligent residents.
“Most of those intoxicated person calls are bar owners and establishments actually doing the right thing and calling us when they have intoxicated people showing up to their bar trying to get in. I’m not too concerned about any of those stats,” said Pittman.
He added that overall custodies were also historically low.
“And that’s not for lack of trying. There were certainly people out there that were doing whatever they could to get our attention, but officers oftentimes find other remedies to resolve the situations whenever they can.”
Pittman said that the addition of 5 state troopers was also a considerable help in providing enough staffing to cover the whole island from morning events to evening fireworks.
However, fire officials did report that calls for illegal fireworks were high this year, though the issue is difficult to combat without precise locations of the incidents from those calling in.
Select board member Melissa Murphy highlighted the difficulty of trying to find the source of the disturbances, citing her own Independence Day experiences with fireworks in her neighborhood.
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