HAVERHILL — You're walking downtown smoking a cigarette, and you toss the butt in the gutter.

Or maybe you and your son come out of a downtown shop and he unwraps a piece of gum, then absent-mindedly tosses the wrapper on the sidewalk without you noticing.

A police officer sees the tossed cigarette butt or gum wrapper, stops you and writes you a ticket for a $50 fine. Your options: Pay the fine or get summonsed to court. Fail to honor the summons to show up at court and then a warrant will be issued for your arrest.

Sound extreme? Not as far as Mayor James Fiorentini and police are concerned.

After complaints about people tossing cigarette butts and other trash on downtown sidewalks and streets, the mayor is calling for police to fine people who disregard Haverhill's litter law. He and complainers say the litter hurts the image of downtown and Haverhill's efforts to attract visitors to new housing and businesses there.

"I'd like to see more tickets written" for littering, said the mayor, whose prime project has been luring businesses and developers downtown to occupy vacant shoe factories.

Police said the city code that lists local ordinances was rewritten several months ago and gives them the power to write tickets with $50 fines for littering.

Police spokesman Sgt. John Arahovites said the department agrees with the mayor's concerns. Arahovites said officers will do their best to watch for people littering and write tickets — or at the very least give them a stern warning.

"It's a great thing to enforce, and we will encourage our officers to enforce it," Arahovites said of the $50 fine.

He said officers have the option to stop people they see littering and make them pick up the trash.

If police attempt to write a ticket and the person who littered refuses to cooperate, that person can get in immediate trouble.

"If they refuse to give their name, you can lock them up," Arahovites said of the officers' choices.

Downtown is undergoing a transformation that is remaking it into the focus of the community — a position it lost decades ago. Into the 1960s, residents worked in downtown shoe factories that were the community's lifeblood and did much of their shopping in the heart of the city. But the shoe industry died out, leaving downtown with empty buildings and looking for a new identity.

Now more than 800 condominiums and apartments are in the process of being built in those old factories, and restaurants, lounges and shops are popping up on ground floors. With all of that comes more people — some of whom litter.

"People can be slobs. It's disgusting," Arahovites said. "It (enforcing the litter ordinance) can be an issue of manpower, but for patrol officers walking the beat, we'll use the $50 fine."

Downtown shoppers who were asked about the possibility of being fined for littering said tossing trash on the sidewalk or street is not right, but some questioned a fine as high as $50.

"Fining people is a bad idea," said Chuck Silva, 52, of Haverhill. "I think we should have more city sweepers cleaning the downtown and taking care of our roads."

When doing business downtown, Dennis Vadeboncoeur, 53, of Haverhill said he tries to place his litter in trash receptacles — assuming there are any in sight.

"People are getting lazy these days about littering," Vadeboncoeur said. "I say that if you get caught littering, you should be fined."

Ray Shaker of Haverhill agreed fining people is a good way to fight littering, but he said the fine should be modified.

"I think a $50 fine is kind of high," said Shaker, 30. "A lower fine might be better."

Some observers, including Arthur Bower and George Dekeon, former city councilors who complained about trash like cigarette butts and gum wrappers on downtown Merrimack Street, have said downtown store owners should pitch in by cleaning up in front of their buildings.

Arahovites agreed, saying enforcement can only do so much. He said police have limited manpower and will do what they can to watch for litterers, but the answer is for people to be responsible with their trash and for merchants to clean up in front of their businesses.

"We only have so many officers," he said. "We're enforcing the traffic laws and so many different things."

Jennie Miller, owner of Jennie's Antiques, 133 Merrimack St., said she likes the idea of police fining those who are caught littering.

"There are trash barrels in the downtown," she said, "but people don't always use them."

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Haverhill's litter law

$50 fine if a police officer writes you a ticket.*

Failure to pay the fine results in a court summons.

Failure to appear in court for the summons could result in a warrant for your arrest.

*The officer can arrest you if you fail to give him your name for the ticket.

SOURCE: Haverhill police