How Innovation from ACS, A Xerox Company, is Tagging the Taggers

— Submitted by Joe Doherty, Government Solutions Group President, ACS, A Xerox Company

One of the things I like to tell people about ACS, A Xerox Company, is that we’re proud of how we help clients with customized services and solutions.

With more than 1,700 public sector customers, we have a lot of success stories, including one from a client I visited this week in California.

For more than a decade, ACS has provided information technology services to the southern California City of Riverside. Graffiti has been an issue in Riverside, and because the city wanted a more efficient way to track the problem, our team worked closely with the city to design the Graffiti Abatement Tool, or the “GAT.” It’s a computer database that helps track cases of graffiti.

Here’s how it works: when graffiti is reported, a public works crew is sent out armed with cleanup materials and a GPS-enabled camera. They take pictures of the graffiti, which are added to the database along with details about the graffiti, such as where and when it happened, and the time spent cleaning it up.

With this information, police can easily search the database for other instances of graffiti by the same “tagger” by searching through the names vandals use to sign their work. It also helps them map locations and see trends of where graffiti may be likely to happen and create an organized chain of evidence.

Clever, isn’t it?

Since the GAT was developed a few years ago, the city has collected more than $110,000 in restitution and can better respond when graffiti is reported.

We’re working on more innovation with the City of Riverside and many other clients. I’ll pass along more of their stories in the future. Stay tuned.

— Joe Doherty, Government Solutions Group President, ACS, A Xerox Company