RESEDA : Anti-Scavenging Plan Called Success

A crackdown on trash scavengers by the Los Angeles Police Department’s West Valley Division has been a rousing success, Councilwoman Laura Chick has announced.

The push to better enforce the city’s anti-scavenging law has resulted in a 30% increase in the amount of recyclables collected by sanitation workers, adding $8,000 to the city’s coffers each month.

“The program clearly pays for itself,” Chick said in a prepared statement.

The pilot project was started in March to battle the growing problem of bottles and other recyclables being stolen from the city’s curbside bins. The City Council approved $64,000 to pay for the program at Chick’s request.

Of that amount, $15,000 was used to pay for police overtime in the West Valley, allowing officers to patrol problem areas and issue citations there. During the 45 days of the pilot program, authorities said regular and reserve officers handed out 50 warning letters and 22 citations to trash scavengers.

Also, police impounded 12 vehicles and arrested three people for unrelated reasons.

Chick said the anti-scavenging campaign was necessary to combat the activity of bottle and can thieves, which was causing residents to question if they wanted to continue setting out their recyclables.

Homeowners complained about the noise created by early morning browsers and said they were concerned about unfamiliar people frequenting their neighborhoods.

About 10 days after the pilot program was launched, similar programs were started in the Police Department’s Foothill and North Hollywood divisions. The low-priority anti-scavenging law had been loosely enforced before the recent focus on the problem.