Fed up with the alarming increase in homeless people causing trouble in New York City, a police union has urged cops to take pictures of vagrants and post them online to bring attention to the problem.

The Sergeants Benevolent Association sent an email to its 5,000 members this week, calling upon the officers to 'utilize your smartphones' and upload the photos to the SBA Flickr page, where numerous shots have already started appearing.

'As you travel about the city of New York, please utilize your smartphones to photograph the homeless lying in our streets, aggressive panhandlers, people urinating in public or engaging in open-air drug activity, and quality-of-life offenses of every type,' says the letter from SBA President Ed Mullins, The New York Post reported.

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Snap and post: The Sergeants Benevolent Association sent an email to its 5,000 members this week, calling upon officers to 'utilize your smartphones' and upload the photos to Flickr, with ones like this already posted

Worrisome: One of the photos which has started appearing online is this shot of a man sleeping on pizza boxes

The SBA letter argued that after years of cleaning up the city's homeless problem, it has now returned and that something must be done

This is one of many photos submitted to the growing Sergeant Benevolent Association's Flickr account

The letter continued: 'We will refer issues to the proper agencies, and we will help create accountability across the board.'

Mullins, a vocal critic of Mayor Bill de Blasio, added in the letter that, with more and more cops being recorded on the job, the initiative makes sense and that accountability should go both ways.

'We, the ''Good Guys'', are sworn to protect our citizens. Shouldn’t our public officials be held to the same standard?' the letter said.

Police officers are not permitted to take pictures of members of the public while on duty.

Mullins' letter urges them to take the photos when commuting to and from work.

'Our friends, family and members of the public are free to take photos as they see fit,' the letter said.

Vocal: SBA President Ed Mullins (left) is a known critic of New Yorj Major Bill de Blasio (right)

Mullins claims the initiative is part of ensuring New York remains the safest large city in America.

It coincides with an alarming increase in the consumption - mainly by homeless men - of the leafy substance known as 'K2.'

The cheap knock-off weed is spiked with unknown chemicals that are supposed to mimic the more mellow effects of pot, but often comes with harsh side effects that have created a quandary for authorities already grappling with how to deal with the city's homeless population.

'When people talk about synthetic marijuana, it's kind of bad misnomer because we don't know what these chemicals are,' said Robert Messner, a police official in charge of civil enforcement.

In recent months, there's been a spike in emergency room visits in New York City by users suffering from high blood pressure, hallucinations, hot flashes and psychotic meltdowns that can turn violent or deadly.

Cops in New York fed up with the city's increase in homeless people are taking it upon on themselves to draw attention to the issue one

On July 24, five patients at a psychiatric facility on Wards Island off of Manhattan were rushed to the hospital after smoking synthetic marijuana.

Less than a week later, a man in the West Village jumped into the Hudson River and drowned. A friend told police the victim was high on K2.

New York City health officials issued warnings in April after synthetic marijuana sent 160 people to hospitals in a little over a week.

Statewide, there have been more than 1,900 emergency department visits from April through June alone, prompting Gov. Andrew Cuomo to call for tighter regulations on an existing list of banned substances to include new chemical compounds.

The risks of synthetic marijuana aren't limited to the smokers: An internal NYPD memo issued last month warned officers that some people strip off their clothes, become impervious to pain and go berserk if confronted, and advised to call for backup and use a Taser if necessary to get them off the street.

At a recent news conference, police commissioner William Bratton described how a suspected user who locked himself inside a home and began tearing it apart suffered a gruesome injury when he deliberately grabbed the blade of an electric saw that emergency service officers were using to get him out.

Users can go 'totally crazy,' Bratton said. 'Some of the normal takedowns we use aren't going to work... It's something we're very concerned about.'

Worries over synthetic marijuana aren't new or confined to New York. In 2013, Washington DC launched a zombie-themed website - K2ZombieDC.com - to warn teenagers of its dangers.

Earlier this year, the National Association of Attorneys General wrote to gasoline companies to demand that they outlaw sale of synthetic drugs - which can come in the form of herbal incense and potpourri - at gas stations and convenience stores.

Homeless: A woman sets up a bed and a sign for help outside a construction site in New York City

Officers are not permitted to take photos while on duty, but have been urged to take them traveling to and from work

Authorities in New York have largely treated the trend has a public health issue, with police officers calling ambulances for users in distress, sometimes after handcuffing them for their own safely.

But they've also sought to put a dent in the market by using health codes to raid small businesses to issue and seize thousands of packets of K2 believed to be produced in China - under brand names like 'Green Giant,' ''Smacked' and 'AK47' - that go for as little as $5.

'They got rid of all the crackheads and here come the K2 smokers,' longtime Harlem resident Carol Shoemaker, 58, said.

'It's just terrible.'