Camden Now Using Talking Cameras to Warn Away Illegal Dumpers

By NEILL BOROWSKI

Published January 16, 2025 at 4:53 PM

Camden Now Using Talking Cameras to Warn Away Illegal Dumpers

CAMDEN – If you’re illegally dumping on the streets of Camden, you may hear a voice from above warning you to stop.

The admonition won’t come from the heavens, but from high on a light pole as part of the city’s participation in a New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection program that arms municipalities with cameras to record waste dumping.

Two cameras that can photograph license plates besides announcing the warnings will be installed at frequent dumping sites in Camden. The Camden County Police Department also looks for illegal dumping, as well as other crimes, with its hundreds of live cameras supervised in real time at police headquarters.

Six communities besides Camden are in the program: Paterson, Perth Amboy, Paulsboro, Salem City, Millville and Vineland, Vincent B. Caliguire, manager of the DEP’s Community Collaborative Initiative, told TAPinto Camden in an interview.

Some urban areas are “seeing a lot more illegal dumping,” Caliguire said.

“People will dump because the fines are low,” he said, adding that he is working with the cities to make it more costly to get caught.

Camden last year developed a program of stiff fines, including the possibility of forfeiting the vehicle. Community members can collect rewards for helping to convict the illegal dumpers.

City workers visit the DEP cameras weekly, downloading the video records to their laptops on site.

“I want to get it out to other cities,” Caliguire said of the program.

Keith Walker, Camden’s Public Works director, said the city is able to move the DEP cameras to where they are needed.

Two problem areas have been at Farragut Avenue and North 36th Street, near the Cramer Hill Nature Preserve, and at South 16th and Carman streets, Walker said.

Besides relying on surveillance, Walker said his crews also analyze the illegally dumped trash or construction waste to look for “any kind of identifying markers.” They include envelopes and prescription medicine bottles.

Besides construction crews, typically from outside the city, other dumpers include landlords who clean out rental units after tenants leave, Walker said.

Walker said illegal dumping can be reported by calling the CCPD 24 hours a day at (856) 757-7042 or the Public Works Department (856) 757-7132 or 757-7139.

In Camden, the amount of illegal dumping seems to have gone down, said Walker, a Camden native who recalls dumping everywhere was a huge problem when he was growing up.