BROCKLEE — Local police have stepped up their efforts to prevent looting on the streets of Brocklee. Thanks to additional patrols and zero-tolerance enforcement, the Brocklee Police Department has issued over 30 looting citations in the past two weeks. Fines for looting range from a minimum of $150 all the way up to $1,500, based on an individual’s past record and the severity of the offense.

This development follows the implementation of Brocklee’s new “superecycling” program, known for its slogan “Think green. Think BIG.” The city signed an exclusive contract with BIG following the dissolution of Brocklee’s former waste-management partner, Wastes of the West. Part of the new contract involved the passage of several city ordinances, including the so-called “Clean & Safe” ordinance being used in the looting crackdown.

“There has been a lot of talk about the Clean & Safe ordinance with regard to an increase in the number of citations for looting,” Police Chief Max Jacobs said in Monday’s press conference. “The fact of the matter is that Clean & Safe also addresses littering and loitering. This department has an outstanding record on those issues of public nuisance. We don’t issue many tickets for littering or loitering because people know better. Once word gets out that we’re enforcing looting laws I think you’re going to see a lot less of these offenses as well.”

Ordinance No. 7731 gets its nickname from its stated purpose “…to keep the City clean and safe from the Public Nuisances of Littering, Loitering, and Looting.” The first two offenses are already defined in the Brocklee municipal code. The new ordinance defines “looting” as:

“unlawfully possessing, damaging, or tampering with materials designated for removal as part of citywide waste management operations, or interfering with the collection and removal of such materials.” Brocklee Ordinance No. 7731

In other words, once it’s on the curb or in the alley on collection day, only a licensed and uniformed waste management professional can touch it.

That’s the message from the city, and you can see it all around town on public service posters like this one.

“You don’t want people going through your trash,” explains BIG spokesperson Mark Zeiger. “It’s as simple as that. Identity theft is on the rise and a lot of it is because identity thieves are going through people’s trash. But aside from that, we’re now collecting charitable donations of used goods as part of Superecycling. We want people to feel safe leaving those donations out with their trash and recycling and compost. We can’t have scavengers and miscreants swiping it, damaging it, so on and so forth.”