Paris Piss Brigade Targets Urine Sauvage

A Paris task force charged with enforcing good behavior is finding human urine tougher to get off the streets than poodle poop, the Wall Street Journal reports. Members of the elite Brigade des Incivilités—Bad Behavior Brigade—can ticket offenders for everything from littering to handing out fliers, but they say public urination is the most persistent problem they face.

Hundreds of high-tech, free-to-use pissoirs have done little to reduce the persistent smell of urine in Paris—made worse by the summer heat—although a specially designed wall that actually makes the urine splash back on the offender has succeeded in discouraging Parisians from relieving themselves in one favored location. The brigade's ticketing for urine sauvage has surged in recent years, but city officials aren't sure whether that's due to a rise in uncivilized behavior or stepped-up efforts by the special agents.
(More Paris stories.)