More New Yorkers are apparently having a hard time holding it in, according to the latest data on public urination.
The number of complaints about people peeing in public across the five boroughs nearly doubled so far this year compared to the same period in 2025, as found in an amNewYork review of the latest NYPD Quality-of-Life (QOL) report.
As of April 12, the city had received 316 complaints of public urination, up from 214 during the same period last year — a 47.7% increase.
Ironically, complaints of public drinking have significantly decreased by nearly 17% during the same period, from 685 in 2025 to 570 this year.
Meanwhile, it is unclear how many summonses police issued in response to the influx of complaints about public urination. When amNewYork contacted the NYPD’s Deputy Commissioner of Public Information to inquire about the number of summonses issued for the offense this year, the response was, “data will be posted when it becomes available.”
More New Yorkers are apparently having a hard time holding it in, according to the latest data on public urination.Photo via Getty Images
Police treat most public urination charges as non-criminal administrative code violations that are typically handled with criminal court summonses. Violators usually are charged a $50 fine, according to the New York State Unified Court System.
While urinating in public is usually not a crime, it can have detrimental quality-of-life effects for society, some experts have said. It can create odorous conditions in alleyways, under overpasses, in train hubs, and near buildings—anywhere that attracts quick bladder relief.
Calls for relief
Coinciding with the increased number of complaints about the issue, some New York politicians are calling for more action from the local government. Brooklyn Assembly Member Alec Brook-Krasny has a bill in the state legislature that would increase penalties to up to $500 for public urination or defecation in the city.
However, City Council Member Joann Ariola, also from Queens and on the Council Health Committee, told amNewYork that a minor ticket is not enough to deter people from relieving themselves in public.
“The only way to bring this situation under control is to move public urination back to being a criminal offense rather than a civil infraction,” Ariola said. “These offenders are exposing themselves in public and creating health hazards, and they’re only getting a slap on the wrist ticket, if they get anything at all, if they get caught.”
Public urination was not always considered a minor offense. In 2015, the NYPD issued over 150,000 criminal summonses for offenses such as public urination, littering and unreasonable noise. Nearly 20,000 people that year received criminal summonses for public urination alone.
NYC Council members at the time felt the punishments did not fit the crimes, leading to the city’s Criminal Justice Reform Act of 2016, which began sending cases, including public urination, to civil rather than criminal court.
Ariola suggested turning back the clock to curb street urination.
“It’s completely unacceptable,” she said. “We need the laws on public urination to go back to where they were pre-2017, when the police were able to hold offenders criminally liable.”
Queens City Council Member Lynn Schulman, who chairs the council’s Health Committee, declined to comment on this story.
The city responds to the bathroom crisis
Meanwhile, the city is addressing its lack of restrooms with a $4 million pilot program that Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced on Jan. 10, designed to expand access citywide. With approximately 1,000 public restrooms currently available in NYC — 70% of which are in parks — officials project the program will increase the number of facilities outside of park areas, including placement in public plazas.
The first restroom under the investment is scheduled to open at 12th Avenue and St. Clair Place in West Harlem later this year. Mamdani said in January the new potty will be “free to use, fully accessible and self-cleaning.”
Jeremy Edwards, a spokesperson for the mayor, told amNewYork that the quality-of-life complaints speak to the importance of more public restrooms.
“As the mayor has said, ‘everyone knows the feeling of needing a bathroom and not being able to find one,’ and these complaints underscore the need to expand public restroom access in every borough, as he announced within his first 100 days in office,” he said.
In the meantime, New Yorkers who often find themselves needing to go, but having nowhere to go, can use the digital NYC Bathroom Map from @Got2GoNYC, which points out bathroom access across the five boroughs.