Police union asking for public's help on homelessness

New York (FOX5NY) - A police union has launched a social media campaign to spark policy changes.

Frustrated officers are also enlisting the public's help to highlight the homeless problems they blame on the de Blasio administration's policies.

The Sergeants Benevolent Association is asking its members, and the public, to document homeless people across the city.

Ed Mullins is the president of the group.
"What we're seeing as a result of some of these policies is a permissive behavior in the city of New York.  That it's OK to leave people lying in the street.  It's OK to carry a gun, we've see the shooting go up.  It's OK to urinate in public."

They are asking the photos to be uploaded to a flickr account.  There were already dozens of images uploaded by Monday night.

Mayor de Blasio has cited statistics claiming there are about 3,000 homeless on the streets who do not seek space in shelters.  He has also said that some panhandlers assumed to be homeless actually have homes.

Not everyone believes the 3,000 figure.  One Murray Hill resident, fed up with the public urination and other behavior in his neighborhood, has even created an app called Map the Homeless.

Users are encouraged to take photos of them creating nusiance issues and upload them and add a location on a map.  He hopes to use it to zone in on homelsss hot spots to pressure the city administration to do something about it.

It is unclear how many downloads the app has, but there were a few positive reviews in the iTunes app store.