There is hereby established an Environmental Crimes Unit. The Department of the Environment shall be the coordinating agency for the County, collaborating with the Department of Public Works and Transportation; Department of Permitting, Inspections and Enforcement; and the Prince George's County Police Department. The mission of the Environmental Crimes Unit is to detect, apprehend, prosecute, and deter persons, owners, lessors, associations, corporations, organizations, and entities from engaging in conduct that harms the County's physical environment. Further, the mission is to educate the community at large about environmental violation issues to make the County cleaner and improve the quality of life for the County's residents and stakeholders.

There is a Memorandum of Understanding, dated September 1, 2018, that was entered into by the County and the Prince George's County Police Department to establish a Prince George's County policy for addressing major incidents of illegal dumping by the Environmental Crimes Team. The Memorandum of Understanding shall be the legal document evidencing the management and operations of the Environmental Crimes Team and the Memorandum of Understanding may be amended from time to time, as deemed necessary. The Memorandum of Understanding is attached hereto and incorporated herein, in full, and is designated as Attachment A.

Environmental crimes are defined as the following: Litter, pursuant to Sections 13-261 through 13-271 of this Code; Illegal Dumping, pursuant to Sections 23-150 through 23-151 of this Code; and Other violations of the Antilitter and Weed Ordinance, Division 9 of Subtitle 13 of this Code; and the Road Ordinance of Prince George's County, Division 4 of Subtitle 23 of this Code, which create or tend to create a danger to the public health, safety, or welfare of the residents of the County. Environmental Crimes include State and Federal laws on litter and illegal dumping.

The Environmental Crimes Unit shall be comprised of the Environmental Crimes Team and shall operate in at least three enforcement areas; one area each for the Northern, Central and Southern regions of the County. The Environmental Crimes Unit shall be authorized and empowered as follows: To enforce Environmental Crimes by issuing notices of violations and/or citations to the person or persons allegedly violating Environmental Crimes laws; To conduct inspections of alleged Environmental Crimes; and To collect data and conduct public outreach and education regarding Environmental Crimes. The composition of the Environmental Crimes Unit may be altered at the discretion of the County Executive or their designee consistent with the mission of the Environmental Crimes Unit. The County employees assigned to the Environmental Crimes Unit must have no criminal record and be of good moral character. The Environmental Crimes Unit is authorized to offer and pay rewards for information that leads to the apprehension and charging of any person for violating Environmental Crimes laws and the collection of a penalty or fine from the person not to exceed 10 percent or up to $500 of the collected penalty or fine. The appropriate enterprise funds shall be used for abatement and reward monies.

To effectively accomplish the Environmental Crimes Unit's mission, it is essential to identify locations in which the enforcement teams will target. Site audits are critical to designation of target areas. Site assessments shall be conducted through a variety of means, including, but not limited to: intelligence data currently in the possession of the County, visual ground-level assessments conducted by the Environmental Crimes Unit enforcement teams, aerial assessments conducted by the Environmental Crimes Unit enforcement teams, other inter-agency groups such as the Nuisance Abatement Board, and resident and other stakeholder complaints. Once site assessments are completed and data is examined, a finalized list of geographical target areas will be established. Target areas will be prioritized and enforcement efforts will commence. Gathered intelligence information shall be stored in a computerized data base to facilitate the work of the Environmental Crimes Unit. The Department of Public Works and Transportation shall give priority to cleaning up those sites in the public right of way referred to them by the Environmental Crimes Unit and the Department of Permitting, Inspections and Enforcement shall give priority to causing the cleaning up of private property sites referred to them by the Environmental Crimes Unit. The site assessment and prioritization facilitated by the Environmental Crimes Unit may be altered at the discretion of the County Executive or their designee, consistent with the mission of the Environmental Crimes Unit.

A major component of the Environmental Crimes Unit is to visibly enforce environmental laws. Similarly, a major component of the Environmental Crimes Unit is to covertly enforce environmental laws. Both the overt and covert operations of the Environmental Crimes Unit shall be conducted pursuant to the Memorandum of Understanding, as amended from time to time.

Outreach and Education. An integral part of combating environmental violations is through outreach and education. External outreach includes, but is not limited to: creation and dissemination of informational pamphlets; establishment of an environmental enforcement hotline within the current 3-1-1 call system; dissemination of violator identity; and community presentations. Internal outreach includes, but is not limited to: creation of an enforcement quick reference guide and development of an internal training component.

The County Attorney shall represent the County in the enforcement of Federal, State and County laws pertaining to litter and illegal dumping. The State's Attorney shall represent the County in the prosecution of cases involving Federal, State and County laws pertaining to litter and illegal dumping.

The Department of the Environment shall annually report data and provide analysis of environmental crimes and report data from the operations of the Environmental Crime Unit, with the exception of illegal dumping complaints that are deemed by the County Attorney to be confidential and/or pre-decisional. The Annual Report shall be transmitted, in accordance with State law, as part of the Ten-Year Solid Waste Management Plan. Site assessment is an on-going process and site assessments will be conducted and priority target areas will be updated periodically with a report at least once annually to the County Council and County Executive of the violations, citations and arrests for Environmental Crimes; response times to complaints involving illegal dumping; number and location of priority sites patrolled by each Environmental Crimes Unit team, and list of number and location of known illegal dump sites in the County.