San Francisco's new 'poop patrol' will try to find waste before you do

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- San Francisco's dirty sidewalks are one of the biggest gripes of residents and cleaning them is among the top priorities of the newly elected mayor. So now the city is launching the poop patrol.

Since the first of the year, the city's 311 service has received an astounding 14,597 calls about piles of poop, human waste and dog feces.

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Now there's an effort to get ahead of the complaints. That's the mission of the poop patrol.

Mohammed Nuru is the city's Director of Public Works. He says, "What we are trying to do is be proactive. so we'll have a crew that will roam around looking for locations. We actually have data for neighborhoods where we get frequent calls."

That's right -- the Department of Public Works will try to spot the mess before you do and steam clean it away.

Mayor London Breed has been taking unannounced tours checking out the city's streets and knows all too well that this is an icky issue.

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"I've had to deal with it myself in front of my home and it's not a pleasant feeling. I want to change San Francisco for the better. I want to clean up the city," she says.

The city will also expand hours at some of its 22 public toilets, called pit stops .

The poop patrol will have a dedicated staff of six and two trucks, for a cost of about $750,000.

There will be a soft launch this week and an official start in September.