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Weary of cleaning up Lehigh Drive and Glendon Road, West Easton will install multiple cameras in undisclosed locations to photograph and prosecute those who dump tires, televisions, furniture, construction debris, and other garbage at night along these roadways.

The purchase of cameras was approved at a previous Council meeting.

Equipped with night vision and motion sensors the cameras will begin snapping pictures when movement is detected within their range. Data storage cards will keep approximately10,000 pictures stored before the memory card needs to be removed, erased, and re-installed.

Signs will also be posted notifying those who travel along those roads, that dumping is unlawful and that camera surveillance is employed.

Should an act of dumping be discovered the appropriate camera(s) will be accessed, the memory card removed, and the time-stamped images reviewed on a Borough computer for prosecution purposes.

There may be cameras that overlap each other, meaning that should a vandal try to steal or disable one camera discovered, there may be another camera recording that activity, as well.

West Easton isn’t the only community who has had enough of illegal dumping. Wilson Borough has posted signs informing drivers of cameras to catch garbage dumpers and I’m told the City of Easton has cameras on their section of Lehigh Drive.

PA Vehicle Code, Title 75, Chapter 37 Covers litter and waste dropped, thrown, or deposited from a vehicle that lands upon any highway, other public or private property without the consent of the owner, or into or on the waters of the Commonwealth. Vehicle owners are responsible even if the owner was not driving or was not in the vehicle. 

Penalty
A summary offense and, upon conviction, may be sentenced to either or both: 1. To pay a fine of not more than $900 in an easement purchased under the Agricultural Area Security Law, $600 in an agricultural security area, or $300 anywhere else. 2. To pick up and remove litter for not less than 8 hours nor more than 16 hours for the first conviction.

UPDATE 8/17/20

Our cRaZy resident and common scold, Constable Tricia Mezzacappa believes West Easton’s effort to curb illegal dumping, by installing cameras to record and prosecute perpetrators is a bad thing. She calls it, “Voyeurism” and attacks me personally for installing cameras.

Sane residents call it an answer to keeping outsiders from dumping their trash in our borough. While illegal dumping hasn’t been completely eliminated, the incidents have decreased significantly since the installation of cameras and signage warning those who would do so, they are being recorded.

Mezzacappa, who has openly called West Easton a “s***hole,” wants it to appear as one.