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"CAMERAS ARE HELPING PHILADELPHIA..." (AUG 2011)
"DUMPING, OTHER PROBLEMS COME INTO FULL FOCUS" (AUG 2011)
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Friday, August 5th, 2011
"ST LOUIS TACKLES ILLEGAL TRASH DUMPING" (SEPT 2010)
"LITTERBUG CRACKDOWN IN PHILADELPHIA" (MAY 2009)
Wednesday, May 13, 2009 | 11:53 PM
May 13, 2009 (WPVI) -- The city is turning to some new tactics to clean up and crack down on people who put their litter where no one wants it. Let's just say someone's watching:
"It could be cleaner, definitely," said concerned city resident.
"I think we could do a better job in the city. I think there's just too much trash," added another resident.
Too much trash just plain stinks. Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter said he won't stand for it.
"We are beefing up our efforts," said Mayor Nutter.
On March 15th a white van pulled up to a vacant lot in northeast Philadelphia. The city said the driver dumped 110 tires right on the side of the road.
"We're trying to catch the violators in the act," said Thomas Conway with Philadelphia Neighborhood Services Division.
In recent weeks, the city started using a new tool to take on the people trashing the place. Covert cameras are being placed in "short dump hot spots." Hidden inside a box, the mobile camera snaps the accused offender in action.
"What they do is take a picture of the violator. It's a digital camera. We just download the pictures onto a laptop computer and then we're going to go after the individuals after we get a license plate and prosecute them," added Conway.
The hidden cameras will move all over the city monitoring areas where people often sneak to dump their unwanted stuff. One camera caught the tire-dumper in the act. Another captured teens who officials say painted graffiti in a vacant lot in Tacony.
Action News spent weeks with city crews tracking the ways they are taking on trash. We followed one of several crews who tracks the trash accumulating in some of the city's 39-thousand vacant lots. "This lot right here is just trash. Crew will have to come out here just rake the trash. Bag it up and get it out of here," said Maurice Fluellen with Vacant Lot Program.
The owner has ten days to clean up the property. If not, a vacant lot crew like this one moves in. Then, the owner gets the bill.
"That I um would assume it looked like four parcels so I would say about 12-hundred dollars," added Conway.
Litter is Wanda Jones' beat. She spends her days patrolling the entire city with the Department of Streets in search of homes and businesses breaking the refuse rules.
"This place right here, that is definitely a litter condition," said Jones.
She cited this business for putting out the garbage a day too late. Another citation went to a business with garbage piling up out front. A citation can cost $25 to $75 per offense.
"Some people are really happy to see us coming because not everyone likes to live with litter on the streets," added Jones.
No one wants litter on their streets. And the recent city clean up proved that. Thousands turned out in April for a one day citywide cleanup, but Mayor Nutter said an even cleaner city will take an every day effort.
"So I think we can be successful and we've seen some success. It needs to be continuous. It needs to be daily, weekly, monthly and then of course yearly in our efforts to make Philadelphia a better, cleaner place."
Here's how you can help clean up the city:
First if you have a vacant lot that needs to be cleaned up on your block you can call the City of Philadelphia's 311 hotline with all the information. Also, if you recognize the man OR the teens in the above photos, call the police Neighborhood Services Unit at 215-685-9500
(Copyright ©2009 WPVI-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)
"CAMERAS CATCH ILLEGAL TRASH DUMPERS..." (MAY 2009)
They'll save the city thousands of dollars. And they might be watching you.
Newport News last year began installing mobile, high-tech digital cameras in various locations to catch illegal-waste dumpers in action.
"We've tried and tried for years," said Amy Gray, assistant administrator for the city's Solid Waste Division. "But there comes a time when you have to work harder and smarter. We want the city to be clean, and we have to do what we have to do."
Picking up after trash offenders comes with a hefty price tag. Newport News spends about $95,000 annually to clean up illegally dumped trash such as tires, roof shingles, mattresses and wooden logs, which people conveniently throw into nearby woods, dump outside a school ball field or unload under an overpass.
To crack down on pricey littering, Newport News bought three flash-cam cameras for a total of $18,000. The cameras are moved regularly to different locations, shifting from one litter hot spot to another.
In fact, Newport News is the only locality in Hampton Roads that uses these kinds of cameras to catch illegal-waste violators.
"We have target areas," Gray said. "We move them where there are historically problems. We can be on one end of the city and 1 1/2 hours later on the opposite end."
Since 2007, the illegal dumping in town has been a crime after a change in a city ordinance. And it comes with serious legal ramifications, which includes a maximum fine of $2,500 and 12 months in jail.
Last month, the city prosecuted and convicted its first trash offender.
Rhodall was sentenced to 12 months in jail — all suspended — a $2,500 civil penalty with $2,250 suspended, 60 hours of community service and two years probation.
"The irony of this is it could have been avoided," said Gray, adding that the city has a leaf collection program. "We were all scratching our heads, and we just couldn't figure it out."
Regular household waste holds the top spot as the No. 1 illegally dumped waste, closely trailed by tires, which are a big headache since they are not biodegradable and over time float to the top of a landfill.
Currently, an unidentified tire dumper is unloading dozens of tires near a local elementary school ball field.
There is also a tire dumper on the run that uses the dark of night to get rid of tires in style; tires are being dumped neatly, usually at individual family homes on corner streets with a privacy fence, said Mike Fleming, one of the Public Works employees assigned to investigate illegal trash violators.
Public Works employees such as Fleming check the cameras every couple of days and download pictures by remote control into their laptop computers.
And Fleming sometimes catches on a tiny microchip snippets of daily life at litter hot spots: Contractors taking long lunch breaks, workers using seemingly deserted lots for restroom breaks or people meeting for different reasons in the secrecy of an overpass.
And then there are the shots of license plates of people who suddenly roll wood logs out of their vans or haul bags of leaves off their trucks, such as Rhodall.
In the last 12 months, the city has issued 12,770 notices and citations to people who violated the city's solid waste deposal ordinance.
"It has to stop," said Gray. "We want a clean city and an environmentally conscious city. It just has to stop."
"CHATTANOOGA FIGHTS ILLEGAL TRASH DUMPING" (MAY 2008)
May 1, 2008 - 4:00PM Illegal dumping is a problem in nearly 50 sites around Chattanooga, but a certain watchdog is cracking down on chronic dumping. A month ago cameras were placed throughout the city to ward off potential dumpers. The city has also cleaned up one major dump site in the 2400 Block of 13th Avenue. "I've been here four years and I have never seen it clean like this," says Anita Burgess who live in the neighborhood. Since the cleanup efforts and the cameras have been on call, they have been a success. City Councilman Manuel Rico says, "Ever since we've cleaned up, put cameras in we've had no problems we haven't had one dump." The cameras are motion-sensitive and when a dumper crosses its lens they hear a verbal warning and a picture is taken. Along with the cameras, public works inspectors are monitoring these sites. City officials say while this one has been free of dumping, that doesn't mean people haven'tthought about it. "We haven't caught anyone illegally dumping but we have had cases where people pull up with debris in their vehicle and the camera has warned them off," says Chattanooga Public Works Sanitation Manager Justin Holland. Neighbors say the camera works so well that it sends the warning message out to passersby who don't intend to dump. Overall, the city says the 13th Avenue location has been a success and other locations still need work. They have already ordered more cameras and expect to put them up soon. "It's 100 percent successful and we're extremely excited that its being used as a deterrent for would be illegal dumpers," says Justin Holland.