San Fran starting poop patrol

LINK

Concerned with the volume of complaint calls from residents about human waste on the city’s sidewalks, Mayor London Breed announced that the city would be launching a dedicated “Poop Patrol” in an effort to clean up the streets.

A team of six Public Works employees patrolling the city’s hot spots, searching for piles of doo-doo.

San Francisco’s Poop Patrol will consist of two trucks equipped with steam cleaners, at the cost of about $750,000. The teams begin their mission this week in what WSL-TV referred to as a “soft launch,” but their official start will be in September.

In February, the NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit surveyed 153 blocks of the city to determine just how filthy it is. When the team presented its findings to Dr. Lee Riley, an infectious disease expert at the University of California, Berkley, she told them she believes parts of San Francisco are dirtier than some of the world’s poorest slums.

“The contamination is…much greater than communities in Brazil or Kenya or India,” Riley said.

Human waste in the streets is more than just unsightly, it’s a matter of public health. Riley explained that when fecal matter dries, it can become airborne and spread potentially lethal viruses.

“If you happen to inhale it,” she said, “it can also go into your intestine.”