PACOIMA : Crackdown OKd on Trash Scavengers

Following the lead of his colleague Laura Chick, Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon on Friday successfully lobbied for two pilot programs to pay for a police crackdown on trash scavengers in his northeast Valley district.

The City Council voted to give $10,000 each to the LAPD’s Foothill and North Hollywood divisions to more aggressively prosecute bottle thieves.

The Bureau of Sanitation has estimated that theft of recyclables from the city’s curbside bins costs Los Angeles $25,000 a month.

Up to now, the law against scavenging has been lightly enforced by police.

Last week, Chick persuaded the council to start a pilot program in the West Valley Division, a project which could be expanded citywide if it succeeds.

But saying that trash-scavenging problems in the northeast Valley need immediate attention, Alarcon proposed the launch of the additional tests.

“We can’t wait,” Alarcon said, adding that it is a good idea to have more than one introductory program because the trash-scavenging issues, and the police methods of dealing with them, may vary from community to community.

In one area of his district, for example, Alarcon said, vagrants raid residents’ recycling bins, cash in the cans at a recycling center and then buy alcohol at a nearby market. Then they drink on the sidewalk in front of the store, Alarcon said.

The $20,000 allocated to the East Valley police divisions will come out of the $49,000 the council set aside last week for possible expansion of the program.