BATON ROUGE - The City-Parish will soon start taking pictures of illegal dumpers in the act.

The 16 cameras arrived in the mail on Monday. The camera boxes include a Canon camera, LED flash, motion detector, solar panel, and speaker with the potential to broadcast messages. The camera can take a high-resolution image from more than 200 feet away at any time of day.

The camera boxes will be installed on top of power poles and can send the images it captures directly to a cell phone.

"It'll be able to very legibly read the license plate, you'll be able to see clear facial images," said Director of Environmental Services Richard Speer.

The City-Parish did not provide a list of where the cameras will go, but say that they will target popular spots for illegal dumping and will move from different locations depending where the need is.

"You know, we have a landfill, everybody can bring their stuff to the landfill," said Speer. "They shouldn't be putting that on the taxpayers to clean up their mess."

It's part of Operation Fresh Start and a coordinated effort between the City-Parish department heads and law enforcement. In a few days, Speer says they'll identify and prioritize areas where the cameras are needed to put a stop to illegal dumping.

The goal is to have the cameras up and running by October 19th. Anyone caught illegally dumping will face charges and penalties will be determined by the courts.