Illegal dumping is responsible for incidences of discarded furniture on the side of the road, the dumping of trash at construction sites, the pollution of public lands, and the destruction of empty buildings. It’s a costly public nuisance that law enforcement and other city officials must fight constantly to stay on top of. While many remedies for illegal dumping exist, one of the simplest yet most effective prevention methods is installing AI-enhanced cameras at dump sites.
Cameras and the Prevention of Crime
Likely, those reading this post will automatically think of the surveillance cameras they see in city train stations and at traffic lights. Indeed, cameras have become an important tool for law enforcement teams worldwide as police officers attempt to prevent crime before it happens.
For example, in Stockholm, Sweden, cameras were placed at various points throughout the city’s subway system. According to a journal article published on JSTOR, that simple act reduced crimes in the subway by 25%. Before the cameras were installed, each location saw about 11 crimes a month. Afterward, that number went down to about three.
It was concluded that the cameras deter those inclined to commit crimes in the subway.
What Types of Materials End Up at Illegal Dump Sites
Illegal dumping and those who do it are, in many senses, equal-opportunity offenders. Some of them dump because they’re too lazy to take their trash to the city dump. Or they don’t want to pay the fee. So, they just dump their trash at the most convenient spot.
Others are dumping items that are toxic to people and the environment and, therefore, are a bit more challenging to eliminate without some forethought.
However, regardless of the reasons why they don’t take care of their trash legally, the effects are the same. Cities, urban areas, public lands, and forested areas become polluted with illegal waste of all kinds.
According to the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, asbestos, medical waste, construction debris, old tires, hazardous chemicals, and old electronics are among the types of trash that illegal dumpers leave at dump sites.
Preventing Illegal Dumping: How Cameras Help Law Enforcement
For the sometimes understaffed law enforcement departments, crime reduction via deterrence offers a viable option for making up for staff and budget shortages. Although the JSTOR article indirectly referenced crimes like theft, the types of crimes that surveillance cameras can prevent are broader than that.
In our experience, smart cameras with modern AI capabilities, like our DeepInsights™ technology, work just as well for enforcement agencies trying to reduce illegal dumping in their cities and states.
Preventing Illegal Dumping With AI
Security cameras on their own, without AI technology, do prevent crime. However, adding AI to a surveillance camera gives law enforcement more options. Imagine having a camera that could not only capture a license plate number but also have the “smarts” to retain the data. Or imagine a sensor with voice-down technology that “shouts” at illegal dumpers, scaring them off.
With smart cameras (and accompanying sensors) like these, law enforcement can look at the information later. This allows police officers to issue tickets and fines to those who dump illegally.
These devices are capable of sending alerts to the necessary parties. For example, illegal dumping can be an issue on construction sites.
Installing cameras, proximity sensors (with voice-down commands), and cameras with License Plate Recognition (LPR) software reduces issues like this greatly. The information coming from all of this technology is available to city officials via their EPIC IO dashboard.
When a Dump Site “Moves”
The Stockholm story had an interesting outcome that’s worth mentioning. Researchers concluded that, while the cameras in the subways did deter crime in the subways, some of that crime moved to the surrounding areas where surveillance wasn’t as good.
This type of “crime movement” doesn’t have to be an issue for law enforcement agencies with some technological flexibility. The EPIC IO technologies offer a suite of technologies, which include:
- Mobile solar trailers and cameras
- Moveable sensors
- Voice-down commands to scare away illegal dumpers
- Universal IoT Gateway (UIG) technology
Because this technology is mobile, law enforcement and government agencies that use it can move it if new dumping hotspots crop up.
This technology also allows law enforcement to identify the perpetrators of these crimes and issue tickets and fines, depending on the laws in the local areas in which they’re employed.
Final Thoughts on Reducing Illegal Dumping With Cameras
Illegal dumping causes serious harm to the environment and costs cities and states money to take care of this illegal trash. Savvy law enforcement agencies and city and state governments are now using AI-enhanced cameras to deter (and even prevent) illegal dumping.
By employing smart technologies, these agencies, which are often strapped both in terms of budget and staff, offer viable options for combating illegal dumping.
