Taking out the Garbage:
A Study of Providence’s Environmental Enforcement System

Madeline Stone

Most of us take for granted the sanitation levels of the cities in which we live. We notice poor conditions but we pay little attention to good conditions. A dedicated environmental enforcement team, a component of the City's Department of Public Works (DPW), is responsible for ensuring the sanitary upkeep of the City of Providence. Though DPW has been responsible for environmental enforcement in Providence for nearly sixty years, it did not establish an actual environmental enforcement division until 1988. In 1995 this division underwent a major restructuring in an effort to become proactive. While the productivity of this system has undeniably increased since changes were made in 1995, no formal study evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of Providence's environmental enforcement system has ever been conducted.

This thesis presents a detailed study of Providence's environmental enforcement system. I attempt to answer the question: How can Providence's environmental violations be reduced? This reduction is a two-step process that involves both improving the existing system and implementing plans to discourage people from committing environmental offenses. I answer a number of questions about the current environmental enforcement system and offer both specific and general recommendations for strategies to reduce the number of environmental violations in Providence.

My analysis revealed important findings about the environmental enforcement system. These discoveries lead me to suggest a number of modifications that can be made to realize the goal of reducing environmental violations in Providence. Major findings and recommendations are listed below, roughly in order of significance.

Findings:

• violations often occur in street clusters
• more than 75 percent of the total tickets issued are for only two violations: early/improper storage of household trash, and littering
• more than one-third of the total tickets issued are to repeat violators
• more than twice as many violations are to absentee landlord residences than are to owner occupied ones
• in 191 out of 273 cases in which warning letters were sent, the warning letter was not followed by a ticket
• in 121 out of 142 cases in which verbal warnings were given, the warning was not followed by a ticket
• not all of the inspectors have the same environmental inspection approach

Recommendations:

• implementation of a real-time inspection system; this would involve inspectors carrying around hand-held computers on which they enter information about violations as they encounter them
• targeting of enforcement efforts at street clusters
• modification and updating of DPW’s database
• increase of sanctions for repeat violators
• mandating of warning letters
• greater emphasis placed on giving verbal warnings
• more distribution of information about Providence’s environmental regulations to its residents
• increase of environmental education efforts, particularly to children
• formalization of the relationship between DPW and the Providence Police Department
• greater encouragement by DPW for residents to use its complaint system