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I’ve spoken often of our very successful inmate work program, where crews of low-risk inmates who are carefully supervised spend five days a week cleaning litter and debris from local roadsides, county property, as well as the property of some qualifying nonprofit groups. Each crew covers a number of miles each time they go out. By utilizing inmate work crews, the BCSO is saving taxpayers money that would normally go to expenses associated with litter pick-up. Inmates who participate in the program do not receive monetary compensation, but they are allowed to earn “credit” that can affect the terms and lengths of their sentence. Again, only low risk inmates qualify for the program and they are carefully supervised. But these inmates can only do so much, and while they perform in a thorough and conscientious manner, all too often the roadways become clogged with litter again almost as soon as the crews get them cleaned. Where the crews will restore an area to its pristine nature, litter bugs seem to hit with a vengeance, leaving paper cups, fast food wrappers, paper bags, diapers, cigarette butts ashtrays and pretty much anything else you can imagine.
This was made clear to me recently after driving through an area the inmates had just cleaned and noticing the marked improvement. A day or so later, I passed that same area and it was already being choked with a new layer of trash and litter. If the public knew just how much litter the work crews clean from county roadways and public property every day, I think they would be surprised. But if they realized how quickly litter begins to re-accumulate, I think they would be shocked.
In most every case, the litter is tossed from the windows of moving cars. The obvious solution would be to keep a litter bag in your car and use it. Upon returning home, it is a simple matter to deposit the litter bag in your outside trash can for regular curbside pickup. Or, litter can be deposed in a dumpster. I don’t know if the problem is a lack of public education, a wanton disregard of the environment or just plain old laziness. Maybe it’s a combination of the three, but we will soon be taking a hard line position on littering.
Protecting the environment is one of the most important aspects of public safety. There is no excuse for throwing trash and debris from an automobile onto the roadway. None. And while I have found many zero tolerance policies to be code words for “zero commonsense,” I believe a zero tolerance policy for littering actually constitutes commonsense.
And that is why, on March 1st, patrol deputies will begin taking strict, proactive measures to enforce Tennessee’s litter law. I have instructed them to issue citations whenever they observe anyone throwing trash or litter from an automobile.
If there are any doubts as to what the laws in Tennessee are regarding litter, you may want to clip this column out and keep it in your car.
In Tennessee, a person commits littering who:
1). Knowingly places, drops or throws litter on any public or private property without permission and does not immediately remove it;
2). Negligently places or throws glass or other dangerous substances on or adjacent to water which the public has access to for swimming or wading, or on or within 50 feet of a public highway, or
3). Negligently discharges sewage, minerals, oil products or litter into any public waters or lakes within this state.
Anyone found guilty of violating these statutes can receive a fine, plus court costs, and may even face the possibility of having to perform community service. I wonder if a liter bug would appreciate the irony of a court of law sentencing them to spend their weekends cleaning litter from the side of the road? Talk about the punishment fitting the crime.
There are other Tennessee statutes that address more serious litter violations, including criminal littering, mitigated criminal littering and aggravated criminal littering. You can see that our legislators have taken the problem of litter seriously, and beginning March 1st, the BCSO will be stepping up enforcement.
As ever, if you want to find out more about the BCSO or if you want to read the stories you won’t find anywhere else, go to this website often. If you want to contact me directly with confidential and/or candid comments, you can email me at comments@bradleysheriff.com. I always enjoy hearing from you and appreciate your feedback. |
