Are New Yorkers having less sex in public? If you frequent New York City parks, you might think so.

The police have given fewer tickets for public sex, according to an article by my colleague J. David Goodman. In 2007, 432 tickets were written for the offense of “sex in park.” In 2018, there were only six.

[Read the full article about sex in New York City parks.]

Possible explanations:

• The police are writing fewer tickets. As Mr. Goodman writes, “Police officers are also increasingly looking to solve neighborhood problems without resorting to handcuffs or tickets.”

• Parks have been upgraded, drawing in more crowds and thus reducing opportunities for illicit encounters. Maybe New York has gentrified too much — from a wild, fun-loving mecca to a dull, money-chasing rat maze.

• Smartphones make it easier to record and report from practically anywhere. The technology also helped usher in the “see something, say something” public awareness campaign that started in subways and spread to nearly every other corner of life.

Decades ago, it was more cumbersome to alert the authorities to improper behavior in the desolate nooks of New York. Graffiti writers I knew, for instance, reveled in spray-painting overpasses as motorists passed by, unable to quickly alert the police.