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Oct 15, 2009 9:09 pm US/Central
City Of Dallas Cracking Down On Illegal Dumping
Reporting
Jack Fink
DALLAS (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ―
It's a problem that costs taxpayers, bothers property owners, and hurts the environment.
It's illegal dumping, and the City of Dallas has a team fighting it on a daily basis.
Dallas marshals say an anonymous phone call led them to a South Dallas street where officers say they found two men illegally dumping car bumpers onto an existing pile of trash.
"There's no house here, no water bill here, nobody here who's actually responsible to pick it up."
Sgt. Paul Hansen, who leads the marshal's illegal dumping team, says he had to call city crews to pick it up at taxpayer's expense.
"Put your hand behind your back."
And if suspects unload anything weighing more than five pounds, they're arrested.
Residents along Anderson Street near 175 and I-45 didn't want to speak on camera but say a lot of people dump here.
The Dallas marshals say they have a tool that helps them catch illegal dumpers in the act, small hidden cameras that they've set-up in well-known and well-documented dumping sites.
In one case last August, an officer in the process of setting up a hidden camera started rolling when he saw three men illegally dumping landscaping. They were charged with felonies.
"The video is one of our best witnesses. When we get video, it's pretty much an irrefutable case" says Sgt. Hansen.
Last March, a hidden camera caught three men dumping office furniture, a bicycle, and a computer, but marshals need the public's help to identify the men.
The cameras have increased arrests. In the 2003-2004 fiscal year the marshals say they arrested 18 and filed 18 criminal cases.
Last fiscal year, they arrested 70 and filed 103 criminal cases.
"Eventually, if you stay in the dumping business, we're going to catch you."
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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