WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The New York Police Department’s (NYPD) practice of photographing homeless people without their permission misuses scarce resources, US advocacy group National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty Senior Attorney Tristia Bauman told Sputnik.
“The practice of photographing homeless people to shame them, and to use them as pawns in a battle against the Mayor, is a waste of precious community resources,” Bauman said on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, The New York Times reported that the city’s police union wanted to take photographs of the homeless on the streets to post them on its Flickr campaign page.
She also stated the police can and should be an important part in advancing a solution to end homelessness.
“But, this practice [of photographing the homeless] will serve no one, and will only further alienate law enforcement from the public at large,” she said.
In June 2015, homeless shelters in New York City held an average of 58,761 people every night, according to the Coalition for the Homeless.
The National Law Center on Homeless and Poverty is a non-profit organization aiming to prevent homelessness, according to the organization’s web page.
