KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Eight Neighborhoods in Kansas City's urban core are using technology to fight illegal dumping.
The groups are working with Kansas City's illegal dumping investigators to track down suspects and prosecute them. Neighborhood association representatives were briefed Thursday at the Emergency Operations Center in Kansas City, Missouri.
Alan Ashurst, an illegal dumping investigator, showed the neighborhood groups how to install the cameras to get the best view that will capture the vehicles and the people involved in illegally dumping in their neighborhoods.
Ashurst warned the group against contacting or trying to track down suspects. The neighborhood groups are asked to simply provide video and pictures from the camera that the city can use to track down and prosecute suspects.
Bill Drummond, of the Manheim Park Neighborhood Association, said his neighborhood used their own money to purchase cameras because they were targeting a drug house that was bringing crime to their neighborhood. Prosecutors were able to arrest and convict suspects from the drug house.
"Cameras are totally successful and the willingness of a neighborhood to community police itself—-that’s the key. That’s where this whole thing is changing," said Drummond.
Fines for illegal dumping range from $1 to $1,000. Residents can get involved in the illegal dumping project or fight illegal dumping by calling the City's hotline: 816-8513-DUMP(3867).
