Bend’s Fourth of July was busy – and boozy

If you feel like this Fourth of July in Bend seemed wilder than usual, you could be right.

“Worse is a relative term, according to everybody and where they’re at, and what they experience,” Bend police Sgt. Tom Pine. “But it certainly was a very, very busy Fourth of July.”

The Bend police and fire departments both said their call volume doubled what they see on an average summer day, but an increased number of calls is expected.

“It was pretty rowdy,” said Hannah Hackbarth, who spent the day on the river. “I had my four kids with me. There was a lot of people out there. We noticed a lot of drinking and some marijuana usage.”

Other chose to avoid the crowds by calling it an early day.

“We saw the parade and then went back home, and it was fun and easy. We didn’t have any problems,” Julie Plagenhoef said.

Police answered a total of 415 calls for service; 301 were from the public and 114 were officer-initiated. The most frequent calls (81) were about fireworks. Others included traffic stops, fights, DUIIs and assaults.

The fire department received 56 calls. Although it’s usually a very busy fire day, only four came from brushfires. The highest number of calls, 39, were medical.

The department can’t say how many of these were alcohol or drug induced, but many people are pointing to the popular ‘Freedom Ride’ as a drunken party, where many overdo it.

“I think we had two maybe three folks that needed to be medically treated and transported due to overdose of alcohol,” Pine said. “We had several other folks down there at the scene that were clearly impaired and having difficulty caring for themselves.”

Pine said if it seems like the celebration was rowdier this year, it just might have been.

“It certainly seemed this year that we had an increase in the use of alcohol and other things such as marijuana,” he said.