SidewalkSnitch · How it works
Last updated: 2026-08-06
SidewalkSnitch handles the part most people get wrong when documenting a violation: figuring out which agency handles it, what violation code applies, and how to describe what you saw. Here is exactly what happens between "tap the camera" and a report live in your Snitches, posted to your block's feed, and, for parking, sanitation, dining, and vendor reports, sent on to NYC 311 by a person on our staff.
Open SidewalkSnitch on your phone and tap the yellow card on the home screen. Choose the violation category — Parking, Outdoor Dining, Sanitation, or Street Vending — then take a photo or upload one from your camera roll. The app reads the photo's EXIF GPS to suggest the location; you can tap the address field to correct it. Before the photo is stored, an EXIF stripper removes the GPS coordinates and camera metadata from the file itself.
Analysis starts on its own once location resolves from the photo or you pick an address; if it cannot start automatically, an Analyze button appears. Your photo is sent to an AI vision model (xAI's Grok vision model) along with a prompt containing NYC's rules registry for the category you selected. The model identifies which rule applies, extracts the license plate (for parking complaints), and drafts a plain-English complaint description — the kind of description a 311 operator would act on. This takes a few seconds. For parking violations, the app also queries NYC's Open Parking and Camera Violations dataset (dataset nc67-uf89) to show you any prior open violations on the plate. That history is shown on screen and is never stored on your complaint record.
The AI's draft description appears on a result card. Read it. If the model got something wrong — wrong plate, wrong violation type, a detail that doesn't match what you saw — edit it directly. When the description accurately reflects what you personally observed, check the attestation box: "I attest that this description is accurate to the best of my knowledge." The Submit button is not active until you check that box. Your complaint is your statement, not the AI's.
SidewalkSnitch classifies your complaint for the city agency that would handle the violation type: NYPD or NYC DOT for parking, NYC DOT for sidewalk-café violations, NYC DSNY for sanitation complaints, NYC DCWP for street vending. If you haven't verified your phone yet, the complaint is saved as a draft and the app prompts you to verify. Once you submit, your Snitches list shows it as "On the feed" — or "Private" if you sent it only to a business — and, with your consent, it is posted 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. You can also take the same details — the classification, the description, the photo — to 311.nyc.gov or call 311 yourself, any time.
The AI — xAI's Grok vision model — does one thing: it reads your photo and produces a classification and a draft description. It does not auto-submit anything. It does not receive your name, phone number, or account details. It does receive the report's address, because the description has to say where you were. It never sees the prior content of your other complaints.
The draft is a starting point. The model is trained on a benchmark set of NYC violation photos and is prompted with the NYC rules registry, but it makes mistakes. Misread plates, wrong violation types, details that don't match the photo — these happen. That is why the attestation step exists. You are the person who was there; you have the final say before anything goes to the city.
Each violation type maps to a specific NYC agency. SidewalkSnitch handles this routing automatically:
You can file the same details yourself at 311.nyc.gov or by calling 311. Once a complaint is with 311, what the agency does with it is up to the agency: some result in a citation; many are closed as "officer investigated, no violation observed." That outcome depends on whether the vehicle or condition was still present when the responding officer arrived.
For time-sensitive violations — a car blocking a fire hydrant during an active emergency, for example — call 911 directly. SidewalkSnitch is not an emergency service.
See a violation right now?
Open SidewalkSnitch on your phone. The whole flow — photo to a report posted on your block — takes under a minute.
Open the appWant more detail on a specific violation type? Guide: parking violations in NYC · Guide: fire hydrant blockers