Cameras capture illegal dumping
Council to expand program after surveillance leads to 349 charges
With surveillance cameras in place at 25 sites across the city, Harris County Precinct 1 Constable Alan Rosen had a message at a news conference for anyone thinking about illegally dumping trash.
“We’re watching you,” Rosen said in August 2016. “Don’t mess with the city anymore, or you’ll go to jail.”
Evidence gathered from the cameras since has led authorities to 617 instances of illegal activity, 349 of which have led to criminal charges since January 2016, according to data from Rosen’s office.
On Wednesday, City Council voted to bolster the program, approving $100,000 to install 14 more surveillance cameras in south and northwest Houston.
Illegal dumping — an environmental crime that ranges from misdemeanor to felony, depending on the weight of the material dumped — predominantly affects Houston’s
low-income, minority communities, which often lack security and trash pickup resources.
The cameras, funded partially by the city and managed by the environmental crimes unit at Rosen’s office, are strategically placed near dumping “hot spots,” capturing the license plates of people unloading tires, old furniture, construction debris and other garbage.
“Illegal dumping destroys the quality of life in neighborhoods. Who wants to live around all that debris?” Rosen said. “We’ve had a lot of success with these cameras so far.”
The city initially provided $250,000 for a set of cameras in 2015, but the county since has expanded the program independently, bringing the total number of cameras currently deployed to around 75, according to Rosen.
“Dumping is an injustice, a disservice, to my constituents,” said District B Councilman Jerry Davis, whose district, alongside District D, will be the focus of the new cameras. “It’s aesthetically unpleasing, and depreciates the value of the homes in these neighborhoods.”
The dumping sites can also pose health hazards, fostering rodents and mosquitoes, city officials say.
Last fall, the city health department cleared more than 35,000 illegally dumped tires to eliminate potential breeding grounds of mosquitoes that could carry the Zika virus.
The piles of trash also affect neighborhood infrastructure, clogging up ditches and contributing to flooding.
“Dumping ruins communities and damages infrastructure,” District D Councilman Dwight Boykins said. “The garbage runs down the city’s drains and blocks the flow of water in residential neighborhoods.”
Robert Bullard, a professor at Texas Southern University sometimes referred to as the “father” of the national environmental justice movement, said that the disproportionately large number of landfills in Houston’s poorer, black communities has led to larger amounts of illegal dumping in those areas.
“Certain areas being are perceived as compatible with illegal dumping,” Bullard said. “The pattern of areas has persisted for at least the past 30 years.”
Community members in District B already have organized a “hot team” to quickly identify and cleanup trash piles so others are not encouraged to dump. Davis hopes the cameras will assist those communities members in breaking this cycle of trash dumping.
“Do you really want kids walking around thinking that its OK to live in a slum, around trash?” Davis said.
The cameras, Rosen noted, have recorded more than just dumping.
The 24-hour dispatch center monitoring camera footage helped to identify a stolen car and ATM machine, as well as captured a murder and an instance of child abuse, Rosen said.