Spokane, Washington, waste haulers participate in workshop to decrease crime

Waste haulers in Spokane, Washington, participated in a program to build a partnership with the city police department to report crimes spotted on collection routes, a report by KXLY says.

The “Your city. Your safety.” program trains haulers on what to look for while on their routes and how to properly report it to the police, the report says. Issues haulers should keep an eye out for include crimes in progress, suspicious activity and requesting welfare checks at homes where they no longer see activity. Haulers will inform the city’s Public Works Division’s dispatchers, who will report the issue to Crime Check, Spokane’s nonemergency crime reporting hotline.

Ken Gimpel with the Spokane Public Works Division told KXLY that haulers were taught to use their intuition and to report something if it seems “odd or out of place.”

Spokane’s waste haulers are out of the road 52 times per year, throughout the entire city, according to the report. Because they are familiar with their customers and neighborhoods, haulers were an ideal contender for this collaboration.

Jason Miller with the city’s Solid Waste Collection told KXLY he reported a stolen car once and thinks the program will help reduce crime in the city.