Everett Police Start Shopping Cart Recovery Program

Everett Police have announced a new program to get more shopping cart back to where they belong.

The Everett Police Department is excited to announce our Shopping Cart Recovery Program! Abandoned shopping carts can be a nuisance and an eyesore that detracts from our beautiful city. Abandoned shopping carts also hurt our local businesses, as replacing unreturned carts can be a considerable cost. If left unreturned, they can also be dangerous, attract litter, more shopping carts, and nuisanceCitizensPatch activity.

To help reduce this issue, we ask our community to report abandoned shopping carts so that our Citizen Volunteers Against Crime can retrieve and return the carts to the owner. To report an abandoned cart, click here or scroll to the bottom of the page.

The Everett Police Department’s Citizen Volunteers Against Crime (CVAC) fill several vital roles in the police department’s service to the community. This new program will be a part of their service. Their collection and return of abandoned shopping carts will provide the following benefits to our community, businesses, and the Police Department:

Benefit to the Community:

Keeps our city clean
Discourages an accumulation of trash in shopping carts
Reduces the potential sidewalk blockages, which could be a hindrance to pedestrians
Discourages the accumulation of more carts throughout the city
Discourages unlawful camping – people experiencing homelessness often use the carts to make shelters

Benefit to Local Businesses:

Encourages cooperation between the police department and retailers
Returns stolen property to retailers, which saves them money
Fosters a healthy retailer/police relationship which may entice other retailers to our city

Benefits to the Department:

Demonstrates our commitment to creative problem-solving efforts
Reduces workload on other City departments, such as Public Works, who is currently responsible for clean-up and disposal of discarded items on City property
Enhances our reputation within the community
Maintain data for the number of carts collected and returned to retailers, which improves our capability of demonstrating the program’s effectiveness and can be used as a guide for other jurisdictions interested in implementing a similar program.

To report an abandoned cart, please click on this link: https://www.everettwa.gov/…/Shopping-Cart-Recovery-Program