If you illegally dump trash in Worcester, prepare to see your face on the big screen — or at least the city’s website.
Worcester’s Quality Of Life task force is so fed up with illegal dumpers they’re now naming (and shaming) anyone who throws garbage anywhere it isn’t supposed to be.
Nicole Valentine, the the city manager’s chief of staff and head of the task force, says the program is already seeing success.
“The response has been incredible,” she said. “We have people coming and identifying license plates, we’ve been catching people on our license plate readers with the cameras that have been set up, the success rate has been great, to date, and now we’re going into the shaming process.”
That means anyone who is a confirmed trash dumper will be found, fined, and potentially brought to court — and then information about that fine or related court documents will be posted online.
“Once we do find those individuals, we will be putting their names on the city website, [and] we will do occasionally press releases,” Valentine said, “just to let people know this is unacceptable behavior in the city of Worcester.”
So far one local company has been publicly shamed, after the city was awarded three thousand dollars in a housing court case against Monster Movers of Marlboro.
According to Valentine, the task force has received more than three thousand tips from the public about other incidents, and more than 19 thousand dollars in fines has been collected so far.
