by Jim Walsh The Arizona Republic Feb. 15, 2010 12:00 AM
Graffiti may have met its match: technology.
A Los Angeles company has developed an iPhone application that, with a few taps, sends a worker out to paint over the eyesore.
Here's how it works: A city code-enforcement officer or resident photographs graffiti and sends the image to the company's databases. The image is automatically tagged with the location of the vandalism through the phone's GPS system, creating an electronic work order. In minutes, a technician can be dispatched with the right color of paint to cover the graffiti as if it were never there.
In addition, the images are cataloged, enabling law enforcement to track taggers and build stronger cases against graffiti vandals.
"It's more than just removal. It's beautification and restoration," said Barry Steinhart, general manager of Graffiti Protective Coatings, a cleanup service that has been in business for 20 years.
The company spent nearly a year developing the app and is debuting it in Avondale, which has a $110,000 annual cleanup contract with the company.
City officials plan to host a "download day" at City Hall this spring, though they have yet to decide who exactly will receive the free app. Currently, a city inspector has it, and City Council members will receive it March 1.
Nationwide, the cost of cleaning up graffiti is estimated at $15 billion to $18 billion annually, said Randy Campbell, a retired California Highway Patrol officer and president of the Nograf Network, a national consortium of police agencies dedicated to eradicating the vandalism.
In Mesa, officials also are considering a contract with Graffiti Protective Coatings. The company is sending 10 trucks stocked with 40 different colors of paint to the city's annual "Top to Bottom" cleanup day Feb. 27 to demonstrate its capabilities.
West Mesa neighborhood activist Stephanie Wright said the city can't sign up for the app fast enough.
"I think it's incredible. I'm so sick" of graffiti, she said.
Wright, co-chairwoman of the Mesa Grande Community Alliance, said residents deserve better than a bare-bones response to graffiti.
Mesa normally has two employees a day roaming the city's more than 120 square miles using recycled paint to cover graffiti with gray squares.
"They do the best they can, but the system isn't working. I think (the app) is a good thing to look at," Wright said.
Craig Blum, a Mesa field-operations supervisor, said inspectors respond to 4,000 to 5,000 graffiti complaints a year. The city uses Eagle Scouts and probationers performing community service to help get graffiti painted over within 24 hours of its reporting.
City officials and law-enforcement officers say it is essential to respond quickly to graffiti reports.
By eradicating graffiti quickly, officials can deny the taggers their ultimate goal: attention and bragging rights.
Mesa city prosecutor John Pombier said that he was impressed by Steinhart's service but that it will come down to whether the cash-strapped city can afford it.
Steinhart says the service pays for itself by eliminating the need for employees to enter data on work orders. He also said the database allows technicians responding to graffiti to check whether other graffiti has been reported nearby, rather than having to drive out to the same area the next day.
He said the company's service costs on average about $20 per graffiti call, about the same price as a gallon of paint.
Although only Avondale at this time is beginning to use the iPhone app, the company has cleanup contracts with Tucson and with the Arizona Department of Transportation for the Phoenix metro region, which stretches from Buckeye to Apache Junction and from Anthem to near Casa Grande, said Lupe Mercado, Arizona manager.
It also has contracts with cities in California and with Las Vegas through the Nevada Department of Transportation.
John Zandler, a maintenance supervisor for ADOT, said Graffiti Protective Coatings' ability to match paint has eliminated the blotches left behind when ADOT crews painted over graffiti. He said eliminating graffiti quickly has deterred taggers.
"You'd end up with blotches, and after a while it really starts to look terrible," Zandler said. "A gray square is almost like outlining a canvas for the next guy."
Gina Montes, director of Avondale's Neighborhood and Family Services Department, said the $110,000 annual contract with Graffiti Protective Coatings is money well-spent. Avondale, with an estimated 79,000 residents, is going to expand its relationship with the company by using the data system for other code-enforcement issues, such as overgrown yards and sign violations.
"It's really a high priority of our City Council to keep our city looking good," Montes said, adding that the psychological impact of graffiti on a community is difficult to overstate.
"It impacts how people feel about the way they live," Montes said. "They feel insecure. It makes people feel unsafe, that they've been violated."
At one time, Avondale had a hard time keeping up with graffiti, she said. But now, "we feel like we're winning the war."
