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Want to clean up graffiti? There’s an app, and more, for that.
The city of Phoenix has launched what it calls the nation’s first free graffiti-busting application for Droid phone users. Users can point, click and send photos of graffiti and other blight to municipal officials for clean-up. Geotags embedded in the photo by its GPS identify the property’s location. Reporters can also track what happens to their reports.
The app was developed by Graffiti Protective Coatings, one of the largest graffiti abatement companies in the United States. It is available on the Droid Market by typing in “myphoenix.”
The app follows the successful launch of GPC’s Target Graffiti program, a real-time web-based system for reporting and tracking graffiti. GPC, which offers 24/7 graffiti removal service, says it developed the system in response to client requests for faster, more comprehensive and more accurate tracking of graffiti for law-enforcement and administrative purposes.
The system can be designed to interface with local law enforcement, public works and code enforcement personnel. Users need not purchase GCS removal services to obtain the Target Graffiti system.
Target Graffiti also uses an iPhone app by the same name, developed by Darland & Associates LLC of Mendocino, CA. The Target Graffiti app allows iPhone users to photograph, document and report graffiti directly to authorities.
"That has allowed that data to be immediately accessible by anyone in the city, namely police departments," says company president Fred Darland. "They can go look in the database for specific monikers… It increases their efficiency tremendously."
Of course, graffiti artists are not taking these techno-measures lying down. In January, Apple unveiled DustTag, an iPhone app designed for graffiti writers, which visualizes the motion involved in the creation of a tag. It allows writers to share animated 3-D representations of their hand styles.
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