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The Scoop on NYC's Dog Law: Violations Increase; So Might Fines

By David Badertscher, PLL

Source: Crime & Justice News

"Dressed in plain clothes and driving white hybrid

Toyotas, Theo Otibu and the 14 other agents of the

New York City Sanitation Department's Canine Task

Force fan out across the five boroughs each day to

enforce the city's "pooper scooper" law, which went

into effect 30 years ago and became the model for

other large cities. The city's 311 complaint line

received about 3,000 complaints about dog waste last

year, up from 2,100 in 2004, and so the Sanitation

Department has added seven agents to the task force,

says the city's Times. In the first 11 months of the

current fiscal year, they handed out 869 summonses,

an increase of roughly 40 percent over the same

period a year before.

The maximum fine, $100, which has not changed

since the law was passed, is likely to go up soon: A

bill increasing it to $250 is awaiting Gov. David A.

Paterson's signature. The most summonses have

been issued in the Bronx, with 335 in the first 11

months of this fiscal year, compared with 215 in

Brooklyn, 157 in Queens, 109 in Manhattan and 53 in

Staten Island. To issue a summons, the agent must

witness the dog doing its business and the owner

walking away. With about a half-million dogs spread

across the city's 305 square miles and an offense that

can take less than 30 seconds, the odds are against

the agents. Most agents find only one or two so-called

K-9 violations in progress each day."

New York Times - http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001io00UHMfaEUaKkVK29mMBsO2wwVKhdTMWPRKC7ACKGqcu-sBAP4Gt7Qk5roUbTzy7l27NnlVMUfkFU0AP2SkpX-aVg656yaI7FUoh1Zvt2pK3KtVdA5gwWZGajXGE5r5PmOIacOC8vBmqkh2Y_oZMAk7NOvUae1CE0X2fQUMIKdu3akl8uGYgQ5Z6NaAXQ9o

Full post as published by New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library on June 06, 2008 (boomark / email).