June 25, 2010
Vol. 40, No. 220

For more information, contact Captain James Faedtke, Environmental Crimes Unit, 302-739-9401, or Michael Globetti, DNREC Public Affairs, 302-739-9902.

More cameras will keep TrashStoppers’
anti-illegal dumping campaign clicking

DOVER – DNREC’s TrashStoppers campaign to curtail illegal dumping in Delaware is bringing violators into sharper focus with additional surveillance cameras placed at dump sites throughout the state.

Within the next month, DNREC will have up to 20 cameras covering Delaware’s known dumping sites – with photographs of violators not only posted on the department’s website, but now distributed to all law enforcement agencies in the state through DIAC, the Delaware Information Analysis Center.

Not only will there be more cameras arrayed against illegal dumping, but they will have greater capacity for identifying violators, according to Capt. James Faedtke of DNREC’s Environmental Crimes Unit (ECU). The latest model camera to be deployed is solar-powered, has a 250-foot field of view, and takes 15-megapixel photos that offer outstanding resolution. The camera also is completely action-activated and with stronger depth of field for ID’ing illegal dumpers.

When they are downloaded, photos are emailed by the ECU to the criminal information clearinghouse DIAC making them accessible by in-car computer to every police vehicle in the state. Last week a Delaware state trooper recognized a vehicle from a TrashStoppers photo and alerted DNREC’s ECU to its location in a Wilmington suburb. A warrant was prepared and the owner was arrested and charged the same day.

Capt. Faedtke credited the cameras as crucial to the TrashStoppers campaign in leading to dozens of arrests for illegal dumping in the last six months. “We also have decoy cameras at locations that have proven just as good a deterrent as the real cameras,” he said. “Trash dumpers are taking fewer chances because of the cameras, whether real or what they fear might be real.”

All of the new cameras – the actual cameras – were obtained by DNREC through a grant to the ECU, Capt. Faedtke said.