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LAPD Database Will Soon Put All of L.A.'s Tags in One Place
Photo by cEntEr of thE stoRm via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr
Taggers who leave their marks on public property will soon find their handiwork showing up in a new kind of gallery. City officials and the Los Angeles Police Department are launching a four-division pilot program that will centralize visual evidence of tags to create a database that will be used to gather evidence for prosecution and restitution.The pilot program (building on a previous pilot at Van Nuys Division), includes Hollenbeck, Van Nuys, Harbor and Central Divisions and will test out a new City of L.A. only TAGRS database.
The database will feature photographs gathered by graffiti cleaning crews. The system is expected to ultimately be expanded to all 21 LAPD divisions so that the City of L.A. will have all of the tagging information accessible via a single system.
Graffiti costs the City of L.A. $10 million a year to clean up.
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