Plain clothes wardens are going undercover to snare irresponsible dog owners and clean up Fife’s streets.
The move is the latest attempt by Fife Council to eradicate dog fouling, the number one cause of complaints to councillors across the region.
Officers admit the problem is a notoriously difficult one to solve but are trying to enlist residents to help them gather enough evidence to catch those who fail to clean up after their pets.
They say they will even patrol neighbourhoods in the middle of the night if there is intelligence walkers regularly leave their dogs’ mess behind at such times.
In the year to September 30, the local authority’s safer communities team received 131 complaints about dog fouling in Levenmouth alone and councillors were inundated with many more.
Despite this, only three fixed penalty notices were issued.
The same trend was seen in Kirkcaldy, where 75 complaints between April and September led to just three fines, and in Glenrothes where there were no fines in spite of 46 complaints received in the same period.
Leven councillor and Fife Council co-leader David Alexander said he was very disappointed by the figures in his ward in particular.
“Given the number of complaints passed on and hundreds of intelligence-led visits, to only catch three people is not enough,” he said.
“The more you fine people, the more the problem reduces. It is an issue and it tends to be the same people in communities all the time.
“I’m not saying it’s easy but if we solve this we’re well on the way to making Fife a better place to live.”
Liz Watson, safer communities area co-ordinator, said sending out dog wardens in uniform was not always the answer.
“Nobody will let their dog foul in front of a warden,” she said.
“We rely so much on the general public telling us where the problem is. We need to know the description of the dog and the owner and where they stay.
“If you tell us, we’ll get patrols out there.”
She added: “If there are people out walking their dogs at 6.30am, we’ll send people out at 6.30am. We have officers out at 4am. We have started putting officers out in plain clothes.”
Ms Watson said even then it was difficult to catch people.
“If someone clocks you watching them they tend to go and get a bag. We’ve had people pick up a dog poo with their bare hands because they’ve seen an officer.”
At the end of last year officers, in partnership with the Dog’s Trust, conducted “The Big Scoop” to target dog fouling at the promenade in Leven.
This involved handing out poo bags to owners and spray painting dog mess and has resulted in a decrease in the number of incidents.
