In parks all over the world, getting people to clean up after their dogs has always been a chore. Everyone loves spending time with their dogs running around or playing fetch outdoors, but they loathe having to bend down and clean up the poop that their pets will eventually leave on the ground. Signs have been put up all over the parks to remind dog owners that they need to clean up the poop, and people have even been threatened with fines, but nothing seems to have had a long-term effect on solving this problem. In National Geographic Channel's (NGC) Crowd Control, producers think outside the box. Instead of punishing people, they decide to reward them. In one park, a trash receptacle▼ is outfitted with sensors to detect when people deposit bags of poop in it. Once this happens, a reward in the form of dog treats is given to owners to be fed to their dogs. This causes quite a stir and gets more people to clean up after their dogs.
Another problem is jaywalking. While it seems like a minor crime, one pedestrian gets injured every eight minutes around the world from jaywalking. The main reason people jaywalk is that they are impatient. At street corners, waiting one minute for a light can seem like an eternity. On Crowd Control, however, a small video game is installed at a crosswalk sign. Pedestrians can play the game with each other, and when they do, they do not even realize they have been waiting for a minute or think about jaywalking. This creative solution to a problem is just another prime example of why everyone needs to watch Crowd Control on NGC this month.
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