Police officer Robert Williams puts on a pair of highlighter blue gloves before reaching for a chair, its leather ripped and peeling, discarded in the woods of McRaven Road in west Jackson. 

Williams is one of two members of the Jackson Police Department’s neighborhood enhancement team, or NET. Formed in early 2024, the team leads efforts to clean up illegal dump sites across the city. 

The duo performs daily patrols around Jackson, surveying common locations where people dump their trash, such as Shaw Road or Greenhill Place in southwest Jackson. Williams said in recent months, he’s noticed that a larger number of people who have been charged with dumping are traveling from outside of the city to dump sites in Jackson. They choose areas that are low-traffic without visible streetlights or cameras.

“It’s secluded,” Williams said, as he steered one of the team’s patrol vehicles down a road overgrown with weeds. “This is the perfect spot for them to come and take three to five minutes, dump some stuff and keep it rolling.” 

On Aug. 12, the Jackson City Council unanimously approved an ordinance that created additional penalties for illegal dumping, including stiffer jail time, a minimum of 32 days, and the immediate seizure of the vehicle used for dumping. 

“This is not just about punishing offenders; it’s about protecting our people, our neighborhoods and our pride. We want a Jackson that’s cleaner, brighter, and safer, and today’s vote is a step toward that vision,” Ward 4 councilman and council president Brian Grizzell said in a statement after the meeting. 

Officer Gloria Blue, the other half of NET, said they collect a wide range of debris from the streets, such as mattresses, bookshelves, carpets and paint materials.

“Anything you can renovate, anything you can take out of a house, they dump,” Blue said.

In recent months, Blue said she’s seen a decrease in large items, such as furniture, they’ve had to pick up. Hinds County supervisors and the police department have placed cameras on streets in south and west Jackson, such as Glen Erin Street or Lindbergh Drive, deterring would-be offenders from dumping.

“It has really slowed down. Now, we’ll probably have one or two couches every couple weeks, but it used to be every single day,” Blue said. 

One initiative JPD has implemented is the Clean Sweep Program, allowing people who are caught dumping the opportunity to clean up the mess they made and reduce their fines. Many people who receive fines aren’t able to pay them, Williams said. One of the JPD neighborhood enhancement team’s main goals is to prosecute people who are guilty of illegal dumping. 

 “We investigate to make arrests,” Williams said. “We don’t just do clean-up. We investigate.”

NET also works in collaboration with the city of Jackson to enforce ordinances surrounding dumping and eyesores in the community, such as hoards of items in a yard or rubber tires piled high.

“We have to call Solid Waste and code enforcement for anything that we can’t get that’s on private property,” Blue said. 

She said that while NET does respond to tips from concerned residents, many of the sites they clear are from their dedicated surveillance of the city.

“Every now and then, we may get a call about something new,” Blue said. “But it’s an everyday cycle.”

For more information or to report an illegal dump site, call constituent services at 601-960-1111.