High tech system catches, deters vandals

South Sioux City uses four high tech graffiti/vandalism deterrent systems

By Lance Martin, City of South Sioux City

“Stop! This is private property. It is illegal to spray graffiti. Your picture has just been taken and will be used to prosecute you. Leave the area now!” This is the message that the City of South Sioux City is sending out to those that would deface public and private property in the city.

A great example of how South Sioux City utilizes technology to address issues in the community, the city has implemented four high tech graffiti/vandalism deterrent systems at repeat graffiti problem areas in the city. There were 255 reported graffiti incidents in South Sioux City in the past year. The systems are called FlashCam 770s and are manufactured by Q-Star Technology, a California based company (www.qstartech.com).

I learned about the FlashCam 770 while attending the Public Technology Institute annual conference in Portland , Oregon in April. The Public Technology Institute or PTI, whose mission is to promote the use of technology in local government, recently awarded The City of Phoenix, Arizona the 2005 PTI Solutions Award for the city’s graffiti abatement program. A major part of the Phoenix program is the use of the FlashCam.

The system consists of a high quality 5 mega-pixel digital camera, a motion sensor, a remote control and a high powered flash mechanism. The systems are solar powered and don’t require any wiring whatsoever making them quick and simple to deploy. The system can be armed so that they are on 24x7 or they can be set to come on at night and shut off in the morning.

Here is how the system works:

The system is mounted to a building or telephone pole and is “aimed” at a building or location where the problem is occurring. When the system is armed and a would be perpetrator walks within the area of the motion detector sensor the system activates taking a digital photograph of the area while playing a recording. The recording is customizable; here in South Sioux City our recording says: “Stop! This is private property. It is illegal to spray graffiti. Your picture has just been taken and will be used to prosecute you. Leave the area now!” The system can be set to take up to four pictures per event. It is best to set the system to take at least two pictures. After the flash goes off and the recorded message plays, most individuals look up at the camera to see what is going on. The second picture then often catches the individual looking directly at the camera.

Before purchasing the FlashCams, I contacted several other cities that are using the system, including Phoenix , Los Angeles , Kansas City and Cincinnati . Their experiences have been much the same as ours: where they have installed the FlashCams, the problem has stopped. The system is a proactive approach to solving the problem of graffiti and vandalism. Very seldom does an individual continue on with the intended graffiti or vandalism after their picture has been taken. The natural reaction in almost all cases is to flee the scene without the crime being committed. Here in South Sioux City we see the system as having great potential in illegal dumping applications as well and plan to deploy a system in this scenario soon.

Rich Gilbertson of Q-Star Technology just recently completed a site visit here in South Sioux City where he showed me several tips and tricks for setting up the system. We toured potential sites here in the city, and he showed me different ways to set the system up to accommodate the different scenarios encountered in the field. We ended up deploying the camera at one of the sites we visited, and it actually resulted in a graffiti arrest. The camera system caught the perpetrator in the act, spray paint can in hand (see accompanying photos) and also fleeing the scene in his vehicle.

My experience with the FlashCam system has been very positive, and I have been impressed with Q-Star Technology’s customer service. The system is relatively simple to deploy and easy to relocate within the city. If anyone has any questions regarding South Sioux City ’s graffiti abatement program, feel free to contact me at 402-494-8328 or lmartin@southsiouxcity.org .

TANgents, a quarterly publication of Technologies Across Nebraska, is edited and produced by Linda Tempel, University of Nebraska—Lincoln Extension, ltempel@unlnotes.unl.edu, and Anne Byers, Nebraska Information Technology Commission, abyers@notes.state.ne.us. Please contact us if you would like to contribute an article or an idea for an article. Comments and suggestions are also welcome.