Advertisement App alerts city of needles found throughout town City says one needle reported a week. Share Shares Copy Link Copy

Late last week, a neighbor reported seeing hypodermic needles along the beach at Leddy Park. While a post was written on Front Porch Forum about it, the city said people should take their report a step further.Watch story here. “I think if the beach is open and there's a staff member around, I think the best thing to do would be to let a staff member know. But if it’s not at a time where the beach is open and staff isn't around, we think a great way to do it is by using the web tool,” said Bill Ward, director of the city’s code enforcement.He's talking about See Click Fix, an app residents can use to take pictures and report issues in their community. In just a few quick steps, the time, place and picture are all sent directly to the right people.“In the case of a needle or a found syringe, they get automatically emailed to the Howard Center Safe Recovery,” Ward said.The Safe Recovery Team will safely dispose of the needles. As the opiate problem continues, the city said it gets about one report a week of needles left behind. There have been 15 reports so far this year. City officials said the centralized reporting of needle sightings help improve prevention efforts as well.“If there is someone who is involved in one of their programs and they're not being careful in discarding their needles along the Elmwood Avenue corridor, they're letting the people in their program know that there's a problem (and) actually provides some help as far as a little bit of peer pressure,” Ward said.You can find out more about the app here.