05/08/2009 - Online scarlet letter for pooper-scooper violators?

Online scarlet letter for pooper-scooper violators?
BY BRYAN LA PLACA
Executive Editor
HOBOKEN -- Outside of novelty tourist attractions, the practice of publicly shaming people by locking them in a pillory in the center of town to be gawked at was outlawed in America in 1839. But under a proposal by Councilman-at-Large and mayoral candidate Peter Cammarano, dog owners who violate the local pooper-scooper law would face a new form of public humiliation.

If you let your doggie do his business on the city streets, and don’t pick it up and get caught, you would be publicly shamed on the city’s website -- in addition to a $2,000 fine -- if Cammarano’s proposal is implemented. When offenders go to court to answer pooper-scooper summonses, they would have a picture taken of their faces, like a mug shot, which would then be posted online for the world to see that they violated the local pooper-scooper ordinance.

Cammarano brought up a discussion of pooper-scooper violations and ways to deter them in the future during the April 15 City Council meeting.

Addressing Public Safety Director William Bergin, Cammarano stated, “If I had a nickel every time I received an e-mail or a phone call, or someone stopped me on the street about pooper-scooper violations… I never want to bring it up every meeting, but it reaches a critical mass of complaints and I’ve got to bring it up.”

“I think it was about two years ago that I drafted and sponsored an ordinance that brought those (pooper-scooper violation) fines up to the maximum allowable amount under state law. (City Attorney Steve) Kleinman gave me guidance in terms of how high we could make that fine, and we also drafted a law that would put violators of the pooper-scooper law up on the city website and we would require a mug shot or something, and put their face on the website with the idea that that kind of penalty would deter the behavior,” said Cammarano.

“I’m getting the feeling that the number of tickets being issued for this particular violation are in the neighborhood of zero,” said Cammarano. “I’m asking you, director, to find somebody and make an example out of them. Right? Get the picture, issue a ticket, put them up on the website and let’s see if it has that deterrent effect.”

Bergin said, “To clarify, I am involved with porta-johns for special events and that, but I think pooper-scoopers comes under somebody else.”

First Ward Councilwoman Theresa Castellano pointed out that pooper-scooper laws fall under the auspices of the Department of Human Services.

City Human Services Director John Pope addressed the council, saying, “About a year ago we had three employees giving summonses, (but now we’re) down to one employee. And we did give eight summonses in the month of February -- apparently not enough.”

“Is that it, for the whole year?” asked Council Vice President Terry LaBruno.

“I don’t know what the total is for the year, I’ll have to get back to you on that, but it’s averaging about that much (per month),” said Pope. “The court has been very strong about fining them. They’re not walking.”

“We do have an issue and I think you were hitting on something that I think is important, is that I have one health inspector that is accosted by the homeowners, and when that happens, he’s authorized to ask a patrolman to help him out,” said Pope.

You oughtta be in pictures
Addressing Cammarano’s public shaming proposal, Pope said, “That’s not easy. That’s not going to happen because people don’t just stand still for a poster shot.”

“When they appear before the judge, what choice do they have?” asked Cammarano. “That’s part of the penalty under the law.”

“We can’t have the answer be that we can’t sideline these people for a quick photograph. They’re required to have their photo taken and put on the city’s website. If somebody wants to challenge that as some kind of infringement on rights, then they can file a suit against the city, but that’s what the law says, and the idea is to deter the behavior, and I get the feeling that we’re not deterring the behavior yet,” said Cammarano.

“No, absolutely not. Certainly not with one inspector giving out eight tickets, there’s no doubt about that,” said Pope. “What we basically do is like a SWAT thing. We get a complaint on high activity and I send an individual out. We were just at 1500…”

“Don’t say 'SWAT thing,'” laughed Cammarano, referencing a controversy when members of the Hoboken SWAT team were photographed at a Hooters restaurant.

“I didn’t mean to,” said Pope, continuing, “1500 Park, we just did a little sting operation there just the other day because we had complaints about that. Allow me to spend some time with the cooperation of the council on this whole picture thing. While I understand it’s on the books, implementation may be something that we need to talk through, because I’m not sure how best to do that relative to the court appearance and things like that.”

“We don’t need another lawsuit, thank you,” said Castellano.

“Yeah, I just don’t know,” said Pope.

“A few years back we did stings at 6 a.m., because the perpetrators do it at 6 a.m. or 11 p.m. They don’t want to be seen, and it was very effective,” said Castellano. “I understand you only have one person, but if we could do a sting one morning and one evening…”

Pope said his department had just done a sting the month prior in the early morning.

“That’s when you get them. That’s great,” said Castellano.

“The sting operations are working,” said Fourth Ward Councilwoman and mayoral candidate Dawn Zimmer. “Some residents have called me and I sent them to (City Health Officer) Mr. (Frank) Sasso and they did a sting operation, and they caught the person and it worked. I think it’s a matter of also publicizing on our website who to call and how to get (a sting) scheduled.”

Pope asked if the existing pooper-scooper ordinance allows for the police to give tickets for violations in addition to the city health officer.

“That’s something else we changed a couple years ago,” said Cammarano. “We increased every one of the (fines for ordinance violations of) nuisance, noise, garbage, pooper scooper, sidewalks… We increased all those fines to the maximum allowable under state law. I think the language we used at the time, Mr. Kleinman, was ‘deputize.’"

“We wanted to make sure that everyone who is able to issue tickets under the authority of the city was deputized to do so for all of these violations. So my understanding is that yes, it could be done by police officers also,” said Cammarano.

“I’m for it,” said Pope. “We need to figure our how best to do it. I can guarantee that we can start with (posting the) name and address (of violators online). Picture? We have to work through that yet.”