SMARTER STRATEGIES

New Technology Enables Municipal IT Departments to Battle Graffiti

Dennis McCafferty | Date: 01-05-10 | Comments

Affiliated Computer Services launches what it calls the Graffiti Abatement Tool, which gives municipal IT managers and other city officials digital cameras to record incidents, images and locations of graffiti.

Like many cities, Riverside, Calif., has struggled to deal with the graffiti sprayed on its buildings, bridges and other structures. Typically, authorities discover the latest display of "artwork," record the incident manually, then dispatch a clean-up person to try to scrub it off.

All of this can be time-consuming and expensive. And, of course, there's nothing stopping the criminals from spray painting the very same spot as soon as it's cleaned up�short of having police provide a 24/7 stakeout.

Dallas-based Affiliated Computer Services, however, has come up with a way to help thwart these vandals: Working closely with city of Riverside's IT department, ACS launched what it calls the Graffiti Abatement Tool (GAT), which provides graffiti-program staffers and contractors with digital cameras to record incidents, images and locations. Since vandals often sign their graffiti with a moniker, GAT also tracks those, allowing users of the tool to pinpoint every piece of graffiti that a particular offender creates in the city.

The tool is connected to a database that produces a GIS map of the graffiti locations and provides links to the pictures and stored data about the incidents themselves. It can track information such as the style of graffiti and tools used to create it; removal method; and the hours of labor that went into getting rid of it.

The tool has created a systemic process when it comes to these incidents: When someone calls the city to report an incident, a public works employee is dispatched to clean it up within 24 hours. When the employee arrives at the scene, he or she uses a digital GPS camera to photograph the scene and various details needed for investigators, and enters clean-up cost information into the camera. The camera information is downloaded to a central police database that currently has more than 200,000 images and associated information. Riverside is capturing 500 photographs and associated information every week.

This data is made available to the police department and city attorney's office, so they can come up with needed restitution figures. Because the GAT builds a chain of evidence against the vandals by using collected data to link them to crime scenes, it's easier to pursue and successfully close these cases. So far, more than $110,000 in restitution have already been collected.

"The GAT has made us more efficient, enabled us to save taxpayer money and help keep our city clean," says Steve Reneker, chief information officer for the city of Riverside.