Ranbud
06-18-2011, 11:17 PM
There are ways to curb graffiti, and in some cases bring it to a level that can be maintained. There are tools to do the job, and people to do it if needed. I would like to help if I may, by providing you with as much information as possible.
* You can make great strides in beating graffiti, if law enforcement in your city makes graffiti a priority crime. Many times, police are just inundated with crimes, shrinking budgets and personnel. If the personnel are not there to do the work, then nothing can ever be accomplished to reduce the problem.
* Equipment, There are cameras that record graffiti crimes, takes their photos, or sounds a message to scare the vandal away. All this really does is create a folder of a lot of unrecognizable and unidentified vandals, or as in the case of the cameras that sound a notice to scare the vandals away, it just moves them to a different location where there in no camera. What I promote is a Tripwire Camera system. These cameras are covert, can be moved from location to location in just a few minutes, the different is that when a vandal is seen at the location, a couple photos are taken covertly, then send via a cell phone connection to one or several email accounts. A person with a smart phone (Police Officer on the beat is ideal) gets the notification within 30 seconds, knows that a crime is in progress, the location, and best yet, photos of the suspect (Able to describe clothing, shoes, hats or other) The Officer can respond to the location and make contact and arrest, if the suspect has left, there is photographic evidence (the photos) and any person(s) in the area matching the photos, can be detained since there is now probable cause.
* Personnel, Most agencies are understaffed these days, so how do you provide a full time officer to work this problem when the manpower is not there? Volunteers! There are many people out there that are more than willing to help, there is even a company that will assist you in setting up a volunteer program if needed, but a lot of this can be accomplished just by using local volunteers, more than willing to help out, if what they do is appreciated.
* Database, All your graffiti tags should be data-based somewhere so that when you do make an arrest, a search of that moniker may turn a $400 case into a felony $1000,000 case. I promote a database called Grip by Gripsystems.org, They will let you use it free of charge for a year, then it is only $850 per year after that. It is 100% web based, so you can see if that moniker you just found, has been seen in other cities or states, in fact that database is worldwide. Another aspect to this database is that it will not only track and map graffiti, but over 30 other crimes as well. It maps each crime using Google Mapping, so you can quickly see trouble areas. In auto theft for instance, you can easily see theft locations as well as recovery locations, this allows police to target those areas for those crimes. You will not find a cheaper database, that does all these things, Anywhere!
* There was also good success in another California town where the City Attorney was able to use the civil law to get restitution from the vandals parents if there were under age. I have more information on this if it is something you want to look into.
To bring it all together, it can work like this.....
You have 1 or more Tripwire cameras, a volunteer finds or is told by your clean up crews, the hot spots for graffiti. The volunteer sets up the covert camera, then goes about their business, even going to bed at night. When an alert comes in to their cellphone, they know the location and can call police directly to report the crime in progress, they can also describe the suspect, wearing a hat, white or black shoes, a jacket, any markings on the jacket. If an arrest is made, the photos are evidence and a copy of the photos were sent to an email account provided by the police agency, or people like me can supply a free email location since we maintain our own servers.
* You can make great strides in beating graffiti, if law enforcement in your city makes graffiti a priority crime. Many times, police are just inundated with crimes, shrinking budgets and personnel. If the personnel are not there to do the work, then nothing can ever be accomplished to reduce the problem.
* Equipment, There are cameras that record graffiti crimes, takes their photos, or sounds a message to scare the vandal away. All this really does is create a folder of a lot of unrecognizable and unidentified vandals, or as in the case of the cameras that sound a notice to scare the vandals away, it just moves them to a different location where there in no camera. What I promote is a Tripwire Camera system. These cameras are covert, can be moved from location to location in just a few minutes, the different is that when a vandal is seen at the location, a couple photos are taken covertly, then send via a cell phone connection to one or several email accounts. A person with a smart phone (Police Officer on the beat is ideal) gets the notification within 30 seconds, knows that a crime is in progress, the location, and best yet, photos of the suspect (Able to describe clothing, shoes, hats or other) The Officer can respond to the location and make contact and arrest, if the suspect has left, there is photographic evidence (the photos) and any person(s) in the area matching the photos, can be detained since there is now probable cause.
* Personnel, Most agencies are understaffed these days, so how do you provide a full time officer to work this problem when the manpower is not there? Volunteers! There are many people out there that are more than willing to help, there is even a company that will assist you in setting up a volunteer program if needed, but a lot of this can be accomplished just by using local volunteers, more than willing to help out, if what they do is appreciated.
* Database, All your graffiti tags should be data-based somewhere so that when you do make an arrest, a search of that moniker may turn a $400 case into a felony $1000,000 case. I promote a database called Grip by Gripsystems.org, They will let you use it free of charge for a year, then it is only $850 per year after that. It is 100% web based, so you can see if that moniker you just found, has been seen in other cities or states, in fact that database is worldwide. Another aspect to this database is that it will not only track and map graffiti, but over 30 other crimes as well. It maps each crime using Google Mapping, so you can quickly see trouble areas. In auto theft for instance, you can easily see theft locations as well as recovery locations, this allows police to target those areas for those crimes. You will not find a cheaper database, that does all these things, Anywhere!
* There was also good success in another California town where the City Attorney was able to use the civil law to get restitution from the vandals parents if there were under age. I have more information on this if it is something you want to look into.
To bring it all together, it can work like this.....
You have 1 or more Tripwire cameras, a volunteer finds or is told by your clean up crews, the hot spots for graffiti. The volunteer sets up the covert camera, then goes about their business, even going to bed at night. When an alert comes in to their cellphone, they know the location and can call police directly to report the crime in progress, they can also describe the suspect, wearing a hat, white or black shoes, a jacket, any markings on the jacket. If an arrest is made, the photos are evidence and a copy of the photos were sent to an email account provided by the police agency, or people like me can supply a free email location since we maintain our own servers.