SidewalkSnitch · FAQ
Last updated: 2026-08-06
For the full privacy and terms details, see Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
SidewalkSnitch is a free Progressive Web App for NYC residents. You photograph a potential city-code violation — a car blocking a fire hydrant, trash set out too early, a sidewalk café operating outside its permit — and the app uses an AI vision model to classify the violation, drafts a complaint description, and posts it to the public feed for your block. Your report lives on SidewalkSnitch. For parking, sanitation, dining, and vendor reports you can ask us to send yours to NYC 311, and parking reports go automatically: a person on our staff submits it on the city's own site, usually within a day, and the Service Request Number appears on your report once the city gives us one. Nothing goes to 311 unless you ask for it or it is a parking report. You can also take the same details straight to NYC 311 yourself, any time. SidewalkSnitch is an independent civic-tech tool, not affiliated with the City of New York.
Reporting is free. Snitch+ is an optional subscription — $9.99/month — for unlimited feed scrolling and block alerts. No advertising, no data sale. SidewalkSnitch earns nothing from your filings.
Reading the feed is free up to 30 posts a day. Posting and reporting are always free and never capped. The limit resets overnight, New York time, and applies only to scrolling the public feed — opening a single report someone shared with you never counts against it. Snitch+ removes the limit; the full plan is on the pricing page at sidewalksnitch.com/pricing.
You need to verify a mobile phone number to file a complaint. NYC requires a real name, verified phone number, and contact address for complaints to be actionable. Without those, the city cannot follow up. You can browse and draft a complaint before verifying — phone verification is only required at the moment of submission.
No. NYC requires identifying information for 311 complaints. The city needs a contactable submitter to follow up, close the complaint, or issue a citation. If you call 311 directly, you can choose not to give your name — but anonymous complaints have lower follow-up rates. SidewalkSnitch does not support anonymous filing because it would route complaints that the city would not act on.
NYC does not routinely share the reporter's identity with the subject of a complaint. Under normal circumstances, the person you report will not know who filed. That said, like any government complaint system, records can be subpoenaed in civil or criminal proceedings. This is true whether you file through SidewalkSnitch, the 311 app, or by phone.
The app sends your photo to xAI's Grok vision model along with a domain-specific prompt that includes NYC's rules registry for the violation category you selected. The model identifies what rule, if any, is violated, extracts relevant details (license plate, business name, address), and drafts a plain-English complaint description. You review that draft, edit anything that's wrong, and check a box attesting that the description matches what you personally observed. The AI does not auto-file anything.
Currently: parking violations (hydrant blocker, crosswalk blocker, bus-stop blocker, bike-lane blocker, double-parking, handicap zone without permit), outdoor dining violations (sidewalk café operating outside permit boundaries or hours, unsafe barriers), sanitation violations (early trash setout, illegal dumping, recycling non-compliance), street vending violations (unlicensed vending, restricted-zone vending, blocking a hydrant or crosswalk with a cart), and dog violations (off-leash in a non-designated area, dog waste left on the sidewalk, a dog tethered outside a storefront). Lost & Found is its own tab when you start a new report — tap ＋, then Lost & Found. Found items also appear as a Map layer. Dog and Lost & Found reports don't go through 311. Additional categories are planned.
SidewalkSnitch saves your complaint to your Snitches and classifies it for the agency that handles that violation type — NYPD, NYC DOT, NYC DSNY, or NYC DCWP. With your consent, it also posts the report to the public feed for your block. For parking, sanitation, dining, and vendor reports you can ask us to send yours to NYC 311, and parking reports go automatically: a person on our staff submits it on the city's own site, usually within a day, and the Service Request Number appears on your report once the city gives us one. Nothing goes to 311 unless you ask for it or it is a parking report. If you want the city to act on this right now yourself, you can also file the same details directly at 311.nyc.gov or by calling 311.
For a walkthrough of a specific violation type, see the NYC 311 complaint guides — step-by-step pages for parking, sanitation, noise, and sidewalk complaints. For the underlying code sections, agencies, and penalties behind any violation, see the NYC regulations reference. More on what SidewalkSnitch is and isn't on the About page.
Email us at hello@sidewalksnitch.com. For technical issues, include the complaint ID from your Snitches if you have it.
When access opens, you snap a photo from the home screen.
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SidewalkSnitch is an independent civic tool. Not affiliated with the City of New York.
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