Commissioner of NYC Department of Sanitation Jessica Tisch and City Councilmember Rafael Salamanca announced a $180,000 funding for the installation of 15 new surveillance cameras Friday.
“The Sanitation Department is going to catch you and when we catch you, you can be locked up, you will get a 4,000 dollar summons and your vehicle will be impounded, it’s not a question of if it’s a question of when,” Tisch said.
What You Need To Know
- Sanitation Commissioner Jessica Tisch and City Councilmember Rafael Salamanca Friday announced $180,000 funding for the installation of 15 new surveillance cameras
- Tisch said since June 1, the department has installed about 50 cameras in all five boroughs - with nine in the South Bronx
- Salamanca said the worst dumping takes place in the more industrial parts of his district, which includes Hunts Point and Point Morris
Tisch said the department installed about 50 cameras since June 1 in all five boroughs — with nine in the South Bronx.
“Illegal dumping in the South Bronx and in my district has been an issue for decades,” Salamanca said.
Salamanca said the worst dumping takes place in the more industrial parts of his district, which includes Hunts Point and Point Morris. But mentioned that residential areas get hit too by what he referred to as bad actors.
“It’s unfortunate that some of these businesses prefer not to pay out of pocket and have their garbage thrown away by sanitation waste companies as is required by law,” Salamanca said.
Just streets away from where the news conference was held, there was clear evidence of illegal dumping, furniture and bags of miscellaneous trash items.
Maria Torres, a Hunts Point business owner and resident, says she’s fed up with illegal dumping happening in her neighborhood for years.
“Whether it’s construction debris, mattresses, couches, I don’t know where these are coming from,” Torres, who is also president and chief operating officer of THE POINT Community Development Corporation, said. “People think nobody’s here, I’m going to just put this here.”
“It makes you feel better as a business owner if you can call sanitation, cause before you used to call sanitation they would say ok… we’ll try,” Torres recalled.
Torres said the announcement is welcomed news in the neighborhood. Since the pandemic began, she and others noticed an increase in dumping on the streets and are optimistic that these new cameras can stop that.
“This is excellent news,” Torres said. “If sanitation is able to have a better camera that can really get license plates and the names of the businesses on the sides of the truck more power to them we’re cold heartedly behind that.”
The Department of Sanitation wants to catch these violators and won’t reveal the exact location of these cameras.
The department said installed cameras are going to move from location to location to dissuade people from dumping in neighborhoods throughout the city.