Cameras catch illegal dumping

TAMPA - Here's proof illegal dumping is no joking matter in Tampa: handcuffs and a felony charge for landscaper Luis Guzman after officers say they caught him red handed dumping three different times.

Arresting Officer Detective Curtis Smith grew up in East Tampa, and that's why he says he jumped at the chance to become that area's first environmental cop.

"Growing up", Smith says, I used to watch the Woodsy the Owl PSA and the Indian tear drop PSA, talking about giving a hoot and don't pollute, so that kinda stuck in my head."

Driving through the streets of his childhood, Smith is proud of the progress he's made, and the 25 to 30 cases he's filed in the first year of a Community Development Grant that funds his patrols.

"Like here", he points out, "there's a mattress, a dumping of convenience."

But to prove the cases takes hard evidence, and seeing is believing. Smith has caught dozens of illegal dumpers literally in the act, with portable solar powered cameras.

"Before I got the cameras," Smith says, "I was only cleaning up, only able to follow up, and sweep up and not have any evidence of who actually committed the dumping. With the camera, it captures people, vehicle tags, day or night."

In truth, most people don't go to jail, unless like Guzman, they're charged after multiple offenses.

It could have been worse: Guzman could have faced three felonies, and the cops could have seized his van, the families only transportation. But instead Detective Smith says, it's about changing behavior, and not putting everyone in jail.