Public urination in NYC sees 50% surge in just one year: report

They put the pee-pee in the Big Apple.

Public urination violations are soaring across the boroughs, according to bladder-busting new data, revealing a nearly 50% increase in 9-1-1 calls related to the odorous offense since April 2025. 

It’s an uptick in tinkling that’s more than a wee bit alarming. 

Peeing in parks, walkways, roadways and on the sides of buildings is, unfortunately, hotly hip among New Yorkers this year, as law enforcement has received a staggering 316 complaints of public urination thus far in 2026, per an April 12 report from the NYPD Quality of Life Division. The number of indecent infractions is up from 214 during the same period last year — a sizable 47.7% increase. 

The exact number of summonses police have issued in response to the misdeed isn’t known. 

The troubling figures echo the recent influx of quality-of-life gripes pertaining to drug use, excessive noise, double parking, disorderly conduct, and, of course, public urination. 

When nature calls, city slickers are unashamedly answering in nature — even with public restroom resources such as the Got2GoNYC map, launched by Teddy Siegel in 2022. 

As an answer to the problem, Mayor Zohran Mamdani vowed to roll out a $4 million citywide program to install up to 30 “self-cleaning” modular public bathrooms in January. 

Sadly, previous plans to erect inexpensive, quick-to-install public potties around town — including a $3.5 million rest station in Manhattan’s Fort Washington Park — have been stuck in purgatory for years due to design changes and legal reviews. 

Fortunately for folks who can’t — or just don’t want to — hold it, the city has deemed public urination a non-criminal “petty offense,” punishable by a $50 fine, according to the New York State Unified Court System. 

Officials, however, fear that the pittance of a penalty is not enough to keep pee-pee off the streets.  

Republican Assemblyman Alec Brook-Krasny of Brooklyn recently issued a bill in the state legislature demanding that outdoor urinators — and defecators — be ordered to pay a $500 fee. 

“In the event that a violator fails to answer such notice of violation within the time provided … [they] shall become liable for additional penalties,” reads the bill, in part. “The additional penalties shall not exceed $450 for each violation.”