A new effort to catch illegal dumpers is underway in Philadelphia

Four tires, twenty grand.

That’s the message Philadelphia city officials want to send to people considering illegally dumping garbage in the city as a new enforcement unit hits the streets.

The officers are armed with violation notices that could cost dumpers $5,000 per item. That means that tossing four tires into a vacant lot — which several years ago would have resulted in a ticket for a couple of hundred bucks, max — can now run a violator the price of a Honda and result in arrest.

The new unit of 40 officers focused on identifying the people who dump is part of an expanded task force that Mayor Cherelle L. Parker announced on Thursday. The group also includes a dozen people who monitor 400 surveillance cameras placed near frequent dumping sites, as well as partners in the police department who investigate severe cases.

“Part of the reason why people think it’s open season to illegally dump in the city of Philadelphia … it’s because they never thought that enforcement would occur,” Parker said. “Besides it being unsightly and unhealthy for people, it’s a crime.”

City officials said they have brought 17 cases against people who dumped waste illegally so far this year, resulting in more than $3.7 million in collected fines.

The mayor said her administration would ramp up that effort with the initiation of the task force.

“Philly ain’t playin’,” she said.

The program is one tenet of Parker’s plan to clean up the city, which was a key campaign promise when she ran for mayor in 2023. Since she took office last year, the administration has implemented a variety of strategies, including twice-weekly trash collection in parts of the city, block-by-block street cleanups on a semiannual basis, and bolstered graffiti abatement.

» READ MORE: Did Mayor Parker’s plan to clean every block work?

Parker made the announcement while standing in North Philadelphia’s infamous Logan Triangle, the 35-acre plot that has been an eyesore for the better part of 50 years. It was once home to hundreds of rowhouses, but the families moved out in the 1980s when it became clear their homes were sinking into the bed of the Wingohocking Creek.

Today, the triangle is a cautionary tale of failed redevelopment — a place where ideas like a basketball center or a dirt bike track or an apple orchard have never been realized. It is now, and has long been, a dumping site.

It’s also the site where, last week, two people were arrested for unloading trash, said Carlton Williams, the city’s director of clean and green initiatives.

Not only could those people face criminal penalties, but the administration is focused on levying hefty fines and holding dumpers responsible for cleanup costs. The city is also newly fining people who hire contractors to short dump.

“We’re gonna hit you where it hurts: in the pocketbook,” Parker said.

Tackling the city’s notoriously bad illegal dumping problem will be a multiyear effort, and Parker has made stronger enforcement a priority. A study conducted in 2019, prior to her tenure, estimated that the city was spending nearly $50 million annually to address illegal dumping, but 90% of that was for cleanup and not prevention.

Despite the spending, many in the city say dumping sites are a major problem. A 2023 Lenfest Institute for Journalism/SSRS poll of 1,200 Philadelphians found that six in 10 residents believed reducing dumping should be a top priority for the mayor. Concern was most acute among residents who are low-income, Black, and Latino.

» READ MORE: For many Black, brown, and low-income residents, illegal dumping is a crisis

City Councilmember Quetcy Lozada, a Democrat and a Parker ally whose district borders Logan Triangle, said the administration’s focus on illegal dumping can begin to remedy what she described as “extremely stressful” situations for residents who have long watched waste pile up near their homes without abatement.

“Our residents have done their part, and those calls for help went unanswered for a really, really long time,” Lozada said. “But today feels different.”

Anyone who sees illegal dumping happening can call 911. Residents who want to report illegal dumping after the fact can file a complaint through 311.