The Stockton Police Department and Department of Public Works are presenting an ordinance during next week’s city council meeting to reward people for reporting illegal dumping.
The 2023-2024 San Joaquin Civil Grand Jury report released in June recommended that the city pass an ordinance allocating funds for a campaign to reward residents up to $250 for reporting illegal dumping.
To be eligible for the reward, citizens must report license plates of vehicles and or trailers with either photos or videos as evidence, which the grand jury report says may “improve enforcement and prosecution of illegal dumping.”
Last May, the San Joaquin Board of Supervisors launched a similar campaign called the “See It, Report It, Stop It” to educate the public about illegal dumping and how to best report it. Each year, the county picks up approximately 2,600 tons of trash costing nearly $1.3 million to do so.
Citizens can already report illegal dumping and graffiti using the My San Joaquin Valley app, SJC public works website or by calling the SJC maintenance superintendent at (209) 468-3074. People found guilty of illegal dumping may face up to $10,000 and possible criminal prosecution.
The grand jury report commends the app’s effectiveness, noting the difficulty of rallying civic engagement around the issue. However, the report calls into question the effectiveness of the city’s camera network, citing that only four arrests have been made for illegal dumping in the past seven years.
In addition, the report recommends that the city and county’s task forces regularly meet to coordinate better, saying that they are not complying with a prior recommendation in the 2019-2020 Civil Grand Jury report.
In response to the grand jury report, Stockton City Manager Harry Black acknowledged the recommendation regarding the ordinance but pushed back against the claim that the city’s task force does not meet regularly.
“For several years, the SPD has participated in the San Joaquin County Strike Team Task Force, meeting weekly to address both illegal dumping and homeless encampment clean-up efforts,” Black said.
Stockton Director of Public Works Chad Reed confirmed this during the Aug 27 special meeting, saying that public works and SPD are meeting weekly to increase the number of city cleanups of homeless encampments and illegal dumping.
During the same meeting, Vice Mayor Kimberly Warmsley raised the issue of illegal dumping, acknowledging that the homeless are not squarely to blame for the garbage around the city as some residents routinely contribute to the problem.
“I went to a site maybe six months ago and I was just walking and talking with staff and someone just pulled up and dumped their trash like it was an everyday thing,” Warmsley said. “I think that when we talk about the cleanups and the trash that is in the city its not just those who are unsheltered who are a part of the problem.”
Members of the community in attendance of the special meetings echoed similar concerns saying that illegal dumping is contributing to the negative stigment unsheltered individuals are currently facing.
Reed acknowledged the concerns saying that they are working with SPD to tackle the issue however, Reed says that current cleanup efforts are being hampered by the closure of the Stockton Recycling this year.
Since the closure Public Work is having to dump garbage at a Lodi transfer station which is quadrupling the number of miles it takes to dump garbage meaning that the city is performing 10 fewer trips.