SACRAMENTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--TNT Fireworks, California’s largest wholesale distributor of State Approved (“Safe & Sane”) Fireworks, today announced the launch of their dual platform smartphone mobile app that will allow residents in cities and counties throughout California to take pictures of the sale and/or use of illegal fireworks in that jurisdiction and email these photos, along with the GPS coordinates of the alleged illegal activity and an audio and text message, to that jurisdiction’s police or fire department so that it can immediately investigate, confiscate, cite and/or arrest those responsible for this alleged illegal activity.
This new, unique smartphone app, appropriately named, Nail ’em, places the power of illegal fireworks enforcement in the palm of any Californian’s hands. It will allow them to report the possession, sale and use of illegal fireworks in their community along with photos and GPS locations. The citizen’s complaint will automatically be routed to the correct law enforcement and fire personnel. The app user can elect to be the “reporting party” or remain anonymous. They can also opt-in to receive notifications and be kept informed regarding when and how their complaint was acted upon. This Nail ’em app is being provided to communities throughout California and their residents, free of charge, as a public service of TNT Fireworks.
“So many California communities in 2015, experienced a rampant use of illegal fireworks, especially in cities where no fireworks were allowed,” declared Dennis C. Revell, spokesperson for TNT Fireworks. “Despite public demands for increased enforcement and years of collaborative efforts between TNT Fireworks and state and local fire and law enforcement agencies to increase public education and create administrative citations and task forces, the sale and use of illegal fireworks has reached epidemic proportions. Because little or nothing is being done to stop the interdiction of these illegal, dangerous items into California, local jurisdictions have become not only the first line of defense, but the only line of defense against illegal fireworks!”
According to numerous experts, communities throughout the state are confronted with the scope of an illegal fireworks problem that requires a level of enforcement personnel that their budgets cannot support. For many years now, the Office of the State Fire Marshal has said, “Dangerous, illegal fireworks constitute a growing, serious threat to your family’s safety this 4th of July. Truckloads of large aerial shells, skyrockets, fire crackers and other illegal fireworks are being smuggled into California. Even though these illegal fireworks are prohibited in every community throughout our great State, they are responsible for almost all of the fireworks-caused fires and injuries each year. Remember, if it goes up in the air or explodes, it is dangerous and illegal.”1
“In its continuing efforts to protect Californians and their communities from illegal fireworks, TNT Fireworks is providing this vehicle through which fire and law enforcement agencies can solicit and gain the public’s help,” stated Revell. “No matter how skilled a community’s police and fire department is; they will benefit from their citizens’ help in identifying illegal fireworks violators. The “Nail ’em” app allows their citizens to assist them by being their eyes and ears out there in the community so that, when it comes to illegal fireworks violators, we can “ ‘Nail ’em’ & ‘Jail ’em’!”
The “Nail ’em” app is available today through the Apple iTunes App Store and Google Play and has been developed for both the iPhone and Android platforms. Tutorial videos on “how to” use the app have been built into the Home page of the app and can also be view on YouTube:
iPhone https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTo2LFeuPio ; Android https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPtXmUrP_IA
Before developing this app, TNT Fireworks conducted extensive research on phone apps that have been developed to support community code enforcement activities ranging from water waste, graffiti, potholes and reporting street light outages. After completing this extensive research, TNT Fireworks identified App-Order, the largest provider of citizen reporting applications for government in North America. App-Order has created over 90 mobile apps for communities across the United States and currently is the provider of app services for the following California cities and counties: Alameda County, Bell, Burbank, Burlingame, Desert Hot Springs, Fullerton, Huntington Park, Maywood, Ontario, Palos Verdes, Salinas, San Bernardino County, San Jose, San Mateo, Santa Ana, Santee, and Torrance.
Since its entry into the California markets 25 years ago, TNT Fireworks has distinguished itself as a strong public safety partner in the 296 communities in California that it does business with as well as throughout the entire state. From its initial award-winning, public service announcements (PSA’s) featuring the late former President Ronald Reagan; to its PSA’s featuring television personality Ron Masak; to its Illegal Fireworks Amnesty Program; to its “Dangerous Games” video; to its “Private Eyes” campaign; to its two radio and television PSA’s featuring country music duo sensation “Brooks & Dunn,” and, most recently, its “Don’t Get Burned” safety video, TNT has received wide acclaim for its Fireworks Safety & Education Program from school districts, the media, the fire service, city councils, Boards of Supervisors and the State of California, all noting the successful impact that they have had on 4th of July safety. (for further information see: www.ca-fireworks.com)
1 http://ca-fireworks.presskit247.com/images/SiteImages/Site60/2005%20Illegal%20Fireworks.jpg
