MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) - If you drive around Milwaukee, you can’t go far without seeing some trash scattered throughout places it shouldn't be.

“You can go anywhere in the city -- if there’s a vacant lot, an alley, a city lot, a vacant house or anything, someone is probably dumping something on it,” Safe and Sound organizer Travis Hope said. “You can drive around anywhere and see it.” 

CBS 58

Hope was selected to join a Milwaukee committee focused on stopping illegal dumping throughout the city.

“It just needs to stop, and we’re trying to come up with ideas, not only myself and the committee, and other organizations and just other residents and other people altogether,” Hope said.

Earlier this week, Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson hit on illegal dumping in his annual State of the City address.

“The lazy, selfish people who dump piles of garbage in alleys and vacant lots, they’ve been surprised by our new enforcement efforts,” Johnson said.

The city has deployed hidden cameras that are catching them in the act and fining them thousands of dollars.

“My plan is to expand the hidden camera efforts to catch more illegal dumpers,” Johnson said.

While tens of thousands of dollars in fines have been given out, the trash continues to pile up.

“Half the time, the people that dump don’t dump in their neighborhood, they go to somebody else’s neighborhood or someone else’s city.  There’s people that post stuff on Facebook, saying, yeah, I go dump stuff in Milwaukee because nobody cares,” Hope said. “I think we need to change that perception, that we do care, that we don’t want that in our city.”

CBS 58