The old-school practice of American graffiti may have met its match in some high-tech prevention programs designed to spot, report and remove the blight from city and private property.
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The latest weapon comes in the form of an iPhone application, developed by a Los Angeles company, that will allow cities to catalog graffiti, dispatch cleanup crews and provide key evidence to police.
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The software application lets citizens or government officials photograph graffiti with an iPhone and send the image to the company’s databases. The location of the graffiti is automatically marked using the phone’s GPS capabilities. An electronic work order is created and, in minutes, a technician can be sent with matching paint to cover up the graffiti. The images are cataloged and mapped so police can track down suspects and build a stronger case.
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In Tucson, for example, Lt. Ron Stiso said iPhone data were used to track down 28-year-old Bobby Leverette, arrested Feb. 4 on suspicion of more than 20 felony counts of criminal damage, plus narcotics violations.
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We’ve made multiple arrests, Stiso said. It certainly is a great tool for us.
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Graffiti eradication is big business. Nationwide, the cost is estimated at $15 billion to $18 billion a year to monitor, detect, remove and repair graffiti damage, said Randy Campbell, a retired California Highway Patrol officer and president of the NoGraf Network, a national consortium of police agencies dedicated to ending the vandalism.
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Campbell said there is other technology being used to fight the problem, including:
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*GRIP Systems, an $850-a-year subscription program for cities, allows residents to send in photos of graffiti from cell phones, or use their computers to e-mail photos and the location of the graffiti, which get logged into a database. The Web site maps other crimes as well using GPS and Google Maps.
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*Tripline Systems uses covert motion-detecting cameras that are…