By JUSTIN MCCALLUM

It’s a frequent topic for Community Board 7’s Environment and Sanitation Committee and universally disgusting–dog poop littering the streets year round. Whether along the greenways of Mosholu Parkway and Reservoir Oval, or other bustling thoroughfares such as Jerome Avenue, the prevalence of poop has certainly raised concerns.

“People not picking up behind their dog is really a problem in our district, and I really don’t see any enforcement,” an anonymous complainant told the March 18 general meeting. But thanks to a recent addition to the 52nd Precinct’s Community Affairs office, the issue may finally come to an end.

Longstanding Problem
Officer June Cortez told the members how the issue had been raised at the District Cabinet meeting, and the Conditions Unit of the five-two, a squadron reserved for quality of life issues. “We sent out some flyers and started warning some of the residents and business owners that we will start enforcing,” she said. Those caught failing to clean up after their dog face a $250 fine.

Inability to assign penalties to the so called “pooper-trators” has been a large obstacle, explained Helene Hartman-Kutnowsky of the Community Board’s Sanitation Committee. “The person has to be caught red-handed,” she explained. “You can’t catch it on video and say where people live.”

Cortez related that the city Sanitation Department is responsible for penalizing business owners for frequent excrement in their storefronts, but its enforcement efforts are impeded. “One of the problems with Sanitation enforcement agents is they cannot require people caught to provide identification, only Sanitation police officers can do that,” she explained. “We have asked the Sanitation Department to add more patrols to the area.

Hartman-Kutnowsky also finds that the area itself is likely to draw these sorts of issues. “We definitely lead the borough in dog excrement, but that’s because we live near beautiful areas where people like to walk their dogs and have a population that can afford pets,” she said. “It’s a double-edged sword, but that doesn’t excuse the behavior.”

The New York Department of Sanitation recorded 76 complaints in the 2013 fiscal year, and another 71 requests to 311 for canine law enforcement so far this fiscal year, according to spokeswoman Kathy Dawkins.

So-called doggy landmines have been a major problem in the Bronx, so much so that legislators and Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. have shed light on the issue. Diaz called on the police to crack down on negligent dog owners violating the “pooper scooper law” during an October 2011 news conference. Efforts were also made by the Mosholu Preservation Corporation when it launched its own “Cut the Crap” campaign in 2004, providing dog waste plastic bags throughout Williamsbridge Oval.

“If you are walking your dog and you are caught without cleaning up after it, the law will be enforced, and it will be the most expensive piece of crap you’ll ever pay for,” Diaz said during the conference.

Forgotten pet feces poses a serious health risk, carrying parasites and diseases such as E. coli, which a California Health Department found become more dangerous if the excrement is not cleaned up quickly. 

Officers Mobilizing
Although they hadn’t begun actively enforcing their new push as of the mid-March meeting, Cortez is hopeful that getting the word out penalizing a few offenders will deter further soiling of city streets.

Cortez assured the crowd that neighbors will begin calling one another as the word of fines and summonses spreads, which – in addition to her passing around a pad of paper for community members to suggest areas where the dog poop seemed concentrated – garnered the Community Affairs officer applause. She emphasized that she’s aware the quality of life issue is problematic and that five-two officers will be briefed.

“If any officer sees someone walking their dog, which stops to go to the bathroom, and the owner doesn’t pick it up immediately, they will be stopped, asked for identification, and they would be issued a summons immediately,” Cortez explained. “There are more police officers out there than Sanitation, so this new effort should be helpful.”

Dawkins added in an email that “the Department will continue to have these areas monitored for failure to remove canine waste and unleashed dogs.” But contrary to Cortez’s comments to the Community Board, Dawkins wrote that “the Department of Sanitation’s Enforcement Division has not been asked by the 52nd Precinct to participate in any joint patrol activities.”

It remains to be seen whether these renewed efforts will quell the stinky situation, with the 5-2 declining to comment on the effectiveness of their new measures so far.

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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.