THE MOST INTELLIGENT, AFFORDABLE GRAFFITI & CRIME TRACKING POSSIBLE
At $2,000.00 per annum for cities under 150,000 in population
Can your city be without it?

What is GRIP and who created it? 

We realized that there was a lack of easily afforded highly functional sharing platforms geared for not only graffiti but a host of city issues and determined to make something that suits rail, city, police and others, we decided to commit to the system. 
 

Why bother with a database, the offenders if caught usually get off with little repercussions?
Not true. End results vary city to city ,county to county and yes there have been serious flaws in the legal process in the past. Cities sometimes take this stance as they see offenders let off regularly by the courts due to age or lack of evidence.

It needs to be recognized that in the cases where serial younger offenders have been caught but let off with little penalty that the experience of court and cost has been enough to simply make the offender cease. It needs to be realized that one offender being caught and dealt with can lead to a domino effect that can quickly stop graffiti incidents among their associates also. We have seen countless examples where one offender being caught has lead to the detention of dozens through general “saving ones self” mentality. Sure there are those who don’t however we have witnessed many incidents where offenders who have caused hundreds of thousands in damage and been released have stopped and never re-offended. Although let off,  the win to the cit in simply not having that offender continue their damaging ways should be satisfaction enough.

Cases in the United states similarly see younger offenders slip through court processes however there is an upsurge in District Attorneys mounting civil action instantly against the offenders and parents and having an order against them with 100% success. Those who cannot pay often have a lien placed against their homes to see the debt to the city paid in full.

A win whether it be criminal, financial or where offenders cease should all be considered serious wins against this ongoing damage. A city realizing the long term saving by having an offender cease will soon recognize that the legal process although apparently flawed can generate a positive financial gain in both short and long term. 
 

How is it different from the other server based graffiti systems we have seen? 
We recognized several key points that were lacking from two other systems. The power of the GRIP system comes into play with the expanded mapping, reporting and gathering of any relevant information for both city and police.

We also allow the city to take control of the costs by doing their own data entry if they wish. By doing this they can harvest as much or as little information as they want and take control of every aspect of the process.

Instead of paying $12-40,000 per year you would only pay $2,000.00 for a stronger management system. 
 

But other systems do all the analysis for us? 
This “service” we feel is over rated. Being in the industry for 15 years we do this every day. City staff, removalists, code enforcement or anyone can read a tag and determine if its gang related or not. The point is that anyone can read graffiti and the bottom line is the measurement and cost. With GRIP you can be as detailed in your information gathering or as simplistic as you wish. Paying tens of thousands of dollars and basically getting back little for the money spent is best served in other areas. Graffiti reading, looking out for common information, will allow GRIP to track not only one offender but all his associates. Our detailed help notes gives you all the hints and tips to make it happen without the so called “experts” charging you a small fortune to do what’s easily done in house.

As you will see with all the additional features GRIP offers you, it will bring a whole new reason to do things in house with not only graffiti abatement but also code enforcement, sanitation being involved.  
 

But we just take the photo and that’s all we need to do. 
Yes and the issue is the small amount of information brought back from the street gives you only a tiny amount of information that could be so very much more at a negligible cost. Really, considering that an outsourcing company states whether its gang related or not or an approximate size is short changing what is truly possible and potentially flawed.   
 
 
Can GRIP provide the data entry and analysis? 
Yes we can. Although the system is designed and costed for a simple internal process to occur, some may simply not be geared to this method.

For those who wish, we can offer either full data entry and analysis through to simple and occasional graffiti reading assistance if required.

A simple rate for data entry and analysis would be charged to the client based on the time associated if this is their preferred method of operation. Even if we provide this your costs comparatively would be a pittance.

We must stress that to keep costs down we encourage cities to take on their own role and realize that taking in the information via their contractors is a simple much better way, given the sheer diversity of information that can be harvested. 
 
 

Why is GRIP so cheap? 
Although the features are packed into the system we decided that the most important aspect of the system was two fold. 
 

1. It had to be so affordable that every city could participate no matter their population size or their budget.
2. To have as many cities working together who neighbor each other so serial offenders can be quickly and easily identified for their “cross boundary” offences.

Current systems are so over priced that only a small handful can afford it. This prevents many from participating and getting the full potential from shared offender information systems structured this way. 
 

It uses GPS but doesn’t need GPS mapping cameras? 
GPS cameras are ideal for any GPS plotting however we recognized that some may not have the budget to pay for one, two or three cameras. We have configured the system so you can use existing digital cameras, so long as you have an exact street address. The only difference is that for non addressable locations like parks and lanes we sell a cheap gps logger so that image can be easily added in and the coordinates for that location is simply keyed in. We prefer clients use our GPS cameras as it is a lot simpler but we wanted to be sure it wasn’t rigid if the couldn’t be afforded. 
 

It sounds like a lot of man hours and work to make this happen? 
Not at all. If you consider that the people out doing graffiti removals are normally taking images anyway, it is ideal to hand them a GPS camera, a new form to complete so the data can be entered into the system.

It may take them a few seconds more if you ask them to look for or write down other relevant information such as evidence of drug use, vandalism, sanitation, truancy and so on. You must consider that these people are out anyway and taking information in, its just a better way of doing it with a very powerful end result. Little extra time required. 
 

What about data entry how long will that take? 
Entering the information into GRIP can be very fast or a bit slower dependant on how much information and how detailed you want to be. We entered 6000 entries from a large rail audit in 8 days which was a one off situation. Normal entries in an hour would take in between 60 – 80 entries. 
Your data entry person should be the same person most occasions as they will quickly gain an understanding for reading the graffiti and making associations between offenders. 
A dedicated city or its Police can very quickly enter and establish its own set of offender groups, crews and gangs and by keeping it in house establish a core knowledge and understanding of their problems. 
Outsourcing a company to read your graffiti and advise if its gang or not falls very well short of what can really be established. 
 
How quickly can we see the mapping and start searches and reports? 
Instantly. We designed the system so the minute you enter data it immediately populates the map and enters the data base. You can view your entry on the map, conduct searches to view an offenders damage or look at anything else instantly once its in the system. 
 
 If we gather information on sanitation, code violations, or other interest, how do we inform those departments? 
We designed the system so if there is an incident that the clerk thinks is of importance or for a specific department they can click that form to be emailed to that specific pre determined department for further referral. We designed it so forms can be forwarded to abatement, Police unit, sanitation, or others. 
 

Why is it even better to have neighboring cities involved? 
The power of GRIP comes into play additionally when your neighbors are also entering data on the same offenders.

Imagine you have an offender who you think is worth $10,000 in damage to you. Knowing no city limits they are most likely worth an additional $30,000 to your closest neighbors. Police and the DA or prosecutors have a much larger chance and offence list with multiple cities on board.

Also, if your offender is caught in one of the other cities, the Police will identify on their search that they are also wanted in your city. It works both ways. 
 
 

Can rail or schools be involved? 
Of course. We designed special forms and an entry page specifically for all rail operators. They suffer as much as others and they have special information needed so we designed it so they could be 100% involved. We encourage other groups such as roads, schools and those who are affected by the same offenders. The point being, this is the opportunity to bring together a unified means to get these serial pests for ALL their damage and not just a tiny percentage.

We have packaged a multi agency city package that allows for 4 separate entities to be on board immediately within your city. The city, Parks, DOT and School district can all be involved from day one. 
 

Can the Police do the data entry instead of the city? 
 

Anyone can be responsible for the data entry. We suggest though that the city be the controlling entity as they can harvest more information other than graffiti that’s of importance to it such as sanitation, vandalism and so on.

Some States or countries may prefer to use it only as a Police database and that’s fine. The only down side would be that the city is normally the one resourced to take the images and gather information. They also stand to gain by the features within GRIP such as monthly removal reports, abatement contractors performance and so on which is of interest to the city. 
 

How do the Police interact with the database? 
Your cities Police department would be given open access to the data within. They would be able to log in and search at will on any offender of interest and map their damage and use the other features within the system.

We have designed a special page just for police so they can nominate an offender of interest and create a special page just for them. It can contain a vast amount of information only visible to that officer such as address, past offences, probation details, web site addresses such as you tube, my space, graffiti websites and other investigative items.

It allows Police to add information in an ongoing investigation at will, on the fly and be able to refer back to it as they gather additional information. 
 

Can the mapping be used for other special projects? 
Yes. The design and added features allows Police or the city to use the ability of the mapping for extended purposes. 
 

Some examples may include… 
The ability to enter and plot all the known nightclubs within a certain location with a closing time of 1-3am. They could then look at all the aggravated assaults within the same location and makes correlations with those late night venues. 
A Police department could enter and plot all registered sex offenders for a city. From that point they could enter all sexual assaults for the same geographical area and look to make associations. 
Police may want to enter and plot recent fire bug incidents in a city area of burned bins, premises, cars and so on.

From that they may be able to establish an insight into the offenders approximate location or likely next targets. 
A city may want to identify restaurants or commercial premises that have excessive waste or unsanitary practices near their property so City code enforcement can monitor these locations after citations have been issued. 
 
What help or resources are available? 
We have packed a large amount of resource material into GRIP that will allow any city to take control and become their own internal Graffiti expert tasking unit. We have disregarded the rhetoric of phrases and terms and so on that are available anywhere on the internet and focused on only the important items. We have included data gathering forms for both rail and city, abatement forms, waiver forms and a host of detailed resources to help you get a GRIP on the problem very quickly.

Over time we will look to use the GRIP site as a value added resource that will offer other materials, worth while links and other materials. 
 

What’s the school survey form for? 
We use this in our city audits regularly as it’s a potential huge intelligence gathering tool for a city and its Police.

The survey we suggest is put out to a cities school population heads or principals and asks for their information on their own graffiti and anti social behavior issues.

Its asks the important relevant questions but more importantly asks them to be involved and ask teachers through to janitorial staff for known tags they see regularly on everything from lockers, to buildings and even books. The purpose of this is to quickly allow police to identify if their worst offenders are of school age. We have seen very quick results where schools have identified a correlation, known the offenders age, classroom and locker for quick interaction. 
 

What if we think its too difficult to self manage graffiti information ourselves? 
To be successful in such a worth while project that will see results quickly, you need to ensure you have a commitment to keep the data fresh and relevant not only for your city but for those around you. Without regular information coming in the data will become stale and out dated so keeping it alive and fresh is important. Considering the cost of the system Vs the cost of damage you are experiencing, the time to take images on a very frequent or semi frequent basis should be no more than a contractor is doing for you now. 
Data entry and gaining an internal ownership of the problem allows data entry people to easily pick up on the ease of maintaining such a set of data. Working in with local Police will also reap rewards as the offenders associates and day to day damage is tracked. 
Reading graffiti or trying to is not always possible and no expert worth their weight can say otherwise. Many taggers or crews simply make it so difficult it cannot be read so don’t be concerned as some will slip through the cracks. 
 

GRIP is designed to allow you to register partial tags, symbol graffiti, gang type graffiti and so on so should something be unreadable or traditionally searched by alphanumeric traditional means, you can do so with GRIP. Also should something be too difficult it can be flagged for later review so it is filed for later scrutiny. 
 
Is help available if we need it? 
Yes. We are pooling a resource of some of the most experienced in graffiti as possible. Those who have worked on the street and know graffiti and its subculture. We can offer a service of assisting those who have difficulty in reading some graffiti until they find their feet and get used to reading it on a day to day basis. Should we see the need we will introduce the forum so those who need it can easily and cheaply ask for help at any time. 
 

Are their any hidden charges? 
No. All we ask is that for larger cities where there are multiple smaller cities, is that the realize for multiple entities where different sub cities are then each sub city pays its own subscription. It is only fair to ensure we recover the outlay for our programming and the month to month server costs in storing the mountains of information gathered on such a scale.