Who’s Responsible for Cleaning Up Crime Scenes in New York?

Never in a million years did I think my property would become a crime scene, but 2025 seems to be a year of surprises.

The noise I heard at around 10pm just sounded different. I've heard law enforcement professionals urge the public to follow their instincts, and mine was telling me that something strange was happening outside my house.

I looked out my window to see a car quickly pull into my driveway before immediately shutting of its lights and just... sit there. Soon, two people got out with a flashlight and began looking under the hood of their vehicle. Were they having engine trouble, or was something a more sinister going on?

For a full minute, I sat there debating my next step. I didn't want to call the cops on someone just trying to get their car started, but something still felt off about the situation. When they pulled back out of my driveway, demolishing my mailbox planter in the process (above and below) and weaving down the road, I knew something was wrong.

Few things frustrate me more than drunk driving, and while it was only a suspicion, my splintered planter and the erratic driving were enough to get me to call my local Hudson Valley police department. Little did I know when an officer knocked on my door that we were about to solve the crime in seconds.

As we walked to my mailbox, examining the damage and finding random car parts, I heard over the radio that another officer had just found an abandoned vehicle. "Is it missing part of the body near the wheel well?", my officer asked as they picked up a piece of the car from my property. Indeed it did, the officer on the radio responded.

The damage, while not catastrophic, was still heartbreaking. My wife and I had spent an afternoon installing the mailbox, and I had spent hours custom-building and staining the planter that was now in splinters in our yard. But now I was left with a question I never thought I'd need to ask: who's responsible for cleaning up this mess?

To be fair, this was not a traumatic crime scene with massive damage or bloodstains, but it still felt a little funny that even after the wonderful officers tidily wrapped up my case, they left the damage behind. Was it my responsibility to clean up an official crime scene?

As it turns out, yes, it was. In fact, no matter how brutal the situation, New York police departments bear no responsibility to clean crime scenes on private property. Of course that makes perfect sense if you think about how many extra work hours would be added if they had a cleaning department, but it was still a strange lesson to learn.

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This isn't a complaint. In fact, I am still stunned at the speed and efficiency of the officers who literally cracked the case right in front of me. I just never thought cleaning car parts off my yard would ever land on my chore list. That, and buying the materials to build another planter...