How to gather your evidence
A backed complaint gets investigated; an unbacked one gets filed away. But evidence gathered badly does not merely fail to help: it hands the other side a defence, and can land you in worse trouble than the thing you reported.
What does work
- The log. Date, start time, end time, what happened. It is the dullest thing and the heaviest: nearly all these breaches are penalised for recurrence, and recurrence is only proved by a sustained record.
- Photos and video with date and time. Leave the date stamp on, or frame something that dates the shot: a newspaper, a phone screen. Do not edit or crop the originals — keep them separately.
- The same spot on two dates. For works and dumps, the progress is the fact. Two photos of the same framing fifteen days apart say more than twenty photos from one day.
- Coordinates. A Google Maps or Waze link, or your phone’s coordinates. “Across from the supermarket” is no use to an inspector driving from Limón.
- Neighbours’ signatures. The same document signed by five people changes the priority it gets. Not everyone has to give a statement later.
The limits
- Do not enter someone else’s property. Not to photograph, not “just for a second”. Shoot from public ground or your own property.
- Photograph the condition, not the person. The works, the rubbish, the seal, the sound system — not neighbours’ faces or their children.
- Do not record inside anyone’s home, and do not publish what you gather on social media or neighbourhood groups. Publishing before filing almost always costs you.
- Do not confront anyone. An argument at the gate can turn you into the one being reported.
- With drug dealing: do not photograph, do not ask around, do not discuss it. Just call 800-8000-645.
How to sign
Three ways, all valid:
- Certified Digital Signature (the BCCR card). The cleanest: the signed PDF is never printed and carries the same weight as paper.
- Handwritten signature, scanned — print, sign, scan or photograph it, and email it with a copy of your ID. This is what the Health Ministry accepts and what nearly everyone does.
- At the counter — take two copies and ask them to stamp one. That stamped copy is your acknowledgement.