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Poop Patrol
Have you ever thought twice about how they enforce the “pooper scooper” law? I always imagined it was like flagrant jaywalking; if you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time, and the wrong cop sees you, you might be looking at a ticket. Apparently, I was wrong.
It was just after dawn when Theo Otibu began prowling Ditmas Park in Brooklyn in his unmarked Sanitation Department car. He scanned the sidewalk for an elusive prey, one known only by the droppings of its best friend: the dog owner who does not scoop.
A former police officer in Ghana and UN monitor in Bosnia, Mr. Otibu now devotes his attention to the intricacies of negligent dog owner behavior.
He could see all the telltale signs of negligent intent: the irritated expression, the hurried pace, the absence of a plastic bag in the pocket. “People who pick up have time,” he said earlier. “You can look at some people right away and say, ‘This person is not going to pick up after their dog.’ ”
Jacob Silberberg for The New York Times
There are fourteen similar officers in the Sanitation Department fleet. They patrol the five boroughs looking for violators, and make every effort to hand each of them a ticket, to which is attached a $100 fine. However, it’s not always so easy.
Without identification, agents cannot write summonses, and a number of dog owners sometimes refuse to show ID or claim to have left it at home. Leaving dog waste is a health code violation, not an arrestable offense, so in those cases, agents have to let the matter drop.
I’m not a fan of the gleeful way law enforcement (of any kind) often goes after its prey:
“I have him for the off-leash, but now I’m going to wait to see if he picks up.”
But I also hope this knowledge doesn’t encourage dog owners to go walking, confident in their immunity, without baggies or ID.
