Birmingham police say they are doing everything they can to keep residents safe after city leaders expressed frustration over celebratory gunfire they heard throughout the city on New Year’s Eve.
“We hear them, and we do understand,” said BPD Public Information Officer Sgt. LaQuitta Wade. “Because if it was the other way around, I would want someone to listen to me.”
WBRC was scheduled to meet with Birmingham Chief of Police Michael Pickett Thursday to discuss the city council’s concerns. When the time came for the interview, WBRC was informed that Pickett was unable to meet for the conversation.
On Friday, Jan. 2, BPD issued a report claiming incidents of celebratory gunfire were down 37% compared to New Year’s Eve of 2024. The report also says 4,688 rounds were fired city-wide — nearly 2,000 fewer than the previous year.
“I’m somewhat skeptical [of the reported number of rounds fired] just because of what I heard on New Year’s Eve,” District 2 Councilor Hunter Williams said during a city council meeting the following Tuesday, Jan 6.
Wade said the department used several new technologies to determine how many rounds were fired, but relied heavily on ShotSpotter.
Wade said using ShotSpotter data, BPD mapped where most celebratory gunfire happened during previous New Year’s holidays and deployed extra officers to those locations. She credited this strategy for the reported reduction of incidents in 2025.
“With the mapping and the technology and the strategy that we used, we felt as if we had success.”
Wade added that ShotSpotter can have difficulty distinguishing between gunshots and other loud noises the system might register, like fireworks.
Williams also demanded to see arrest numbers for celebratory gunfire on New Year’s Eve, saying he had also asked for arrest numbers for the 2024 New Year’s and never received them.
“I would like to know the actual arrest numbers. Because I don’t know how aggressive we were, but from what I heard, it did not seem that way,” he said Tuesday.
District 5 Councilor Darrell O’Quinn was also in favor of seeing how many arrests were made.
“I believe we need to put some people behind bars and make examples of them for this,” O’Quinn said. “That’s absolutely got to happen for this to change.”
When asked if the department had the number of arrests for celebratory gunfire on New Year’s Eve 2025, Wade said:
“The Special Operations Division may have those numbers, but that is something that we will discuss with [Councilor Williams] off-camera.”
Wade said BPD would share those arrest numbers if they became available.
“Celebratory gunfire is not OK,” said Wade. “There is a law in place where you cannot fire a weapon within the city limits of Birmingham. And that law will be in place any time, whether it’s New Year’s Eve, whether it’s today, or whether it’s tomorrow.”
Wade said the department understands there can be a disconnect between the number of recorded celebratory gunshots decreasing and the feeling Birmingham residents have about their safety.
“Everyone would want to have zero celebratory gunfire in their city all over this country,” said Wade. “The Birmingham Police Department will continue, year after year, to get better in their strategy. In technology. In mapping. To do everything that we can to protect the citizens of Birmingham.”
