A video posted to Facebook this week shows New York City sanitation officers playing a dirty trick on residents in order to generate revenue.
Digging through their trash.
And then citing anyone who wasn’t “recycling properly”.
The video begins with a man video-recording as he approaches a female officer who is digging through a trash bag.
“Ma’am, can you tell me why you’re taking out garbage from people’s houses in order to give tickets?”
He then turns to a male officer.
“Can you tell me why, officer, are you giving out tickets?
“You are not recycling properly,” responded the officer.
The man recording becomes irate.
“Now you took out garbage from a residents’ house where I have a few witnesses behind you [who saw] that you took out garbage in order to give summonses. I want to know how you dare do something like that. I think you have the nerve to do something like this. You go from one resident to another in order to take out [their] garbage because you want to give out summonses. You have some nerve. You better get out of here, because this is going all over social media. You have some nerve. Are you a human person?”
The irate man then turns back to the female officer.
“Could you do me a favor? Make sure that everybody on social media should know what you have done. We have witnesses on this block who know what you have done. I want to know if you want to continue doing this type of garbage. You are taking out garbage from people’s trash bags in order to give out tickets. How dare you do that?”
The male sanitation officer, who is writing a ticket, responded to the angry man.
“Please stop screaming.”
“I don’t want to stop screaming. I want to continue screaming, because you have everybody on the block upset. You have the nerve. And you consider yourself an officer? Are you a human person? How dare you do this? All over social media? Everybody is going to know who you are.”
New York, as hard as it is to believe, has sanitation police. They’re technically peace officers. They can make arrests and they can also give tickets. But they can’t give a ticket unless they know you’re in violation of the law.
But is searching through someone’s trash to determine if someone is breaking the law a violation of the Fourth Amendment?
In 2015, the Pacific Legal Foundation filed a lawsuit seeking an injunction to void an ordinance that bans people who live in Seattle from throwing food and compostable items in the trash, saying the ordinance calls for ‘massive and persistent snooping’ and violates privacy, according to kiro7.
“In short, this program calls for massive and persistent snooping on the people of Seattle. This is not just objectionable as a matter of policy, it is a flagrant assault on people’s constitutional rights,” said Brian Hodges, managing attorney with PLF’s Pacific Northwest Center in Bellevue.
Jeff Stier, a New Yorker, and senior fellow at the National Center for Public Policy Research congratulated Seattle residents.
“I wish I had thought of that idea myself. I live in New York City. We have extremely strict recycling laws. They’re moving toward requiring composting as well, first in sports arenas and restaurants and hotels, and then in homes as well.”
“As a New York City resident, I must recycle,” he said. “If I don’t recycle, there will be a $25 fine the first time, a $50 fine the second time, a $100 fine for the third violation, and a $500 fine for four or more violations within a six-month period.”
Readers may be wondering how sanitation officers determine if someone is violating recycling laws.
“They feel your garbage bags. If they feel that there is a recyclable item in your trash bag, they will open it up and check. They can’t give you a fine without knowing what’s in there. So, they’re looking into your garbage in order to give you a fine,” says Stier.
What do you think?
Do sanitation laws enforced this way trash privacy laws under the Fourth Amendment?
Update: Last Wednesday, as a result of PLC’s lawsuit, King County Superior Court Judge Beth Andrus ruled that Seattle’s ordinance allowing garbage collectors to look through people’s trash to make sure food scraps aren’t going into the garbage was “unconstitutional and void”, and entered an injunction against its enforcement, according to the Seattle Times.
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