Congratulations to Eight Mile Boulevard Association of Detroit, MI! They were the winners of the 2013 FlashCAM Grant from Graffiti Hurts.

The Eight Mile Boulevard Association (8MBA) is a nonprofit organization in Michigan, established in 1993, which focuses on revitalizing the “appearance and business climate along the Eight Mile Boulevard through education, assistance, code compliance and cooperation.” They applied for the Graffiti Hurts FlashCAM Grant this year in order to enhance their efforts to address the issues of graffiti along the Eight Mile corridor. Certain areas along the corridor have recently become a growing issue and with this grant application, their goal was to become more aggressive in their approach to stop graffiti in their community.

With their new FlashCAM-880SX system, Eight Mile Boulevard Association will be partnering with their community stakeholders and law enforcement professionals to develop a comprehensive and strategic FlashCAM program to deter taggers from returning to deface properties. This program will help engage each partner to help with the identification, remediation and prevention of graffiti along Eight Mile.

We are looking forward to hearing the success stories from Eight Mile Boulevard Association with their FlashCAM program in these coming years. As with previous FlashCAM grant recipients, this strategic approach and dedicated team to these efforts that Eight Mile Boulevard Association has developed for this FlashCAM program will help them see great results with their FlashCAM.

For more information on Eight Mile Boulevard Association, visit their website at www.eightmile.org.

For more information on Graffiti Hurts or their Grants Program, please visit their website at www.graffitihurts.org.

Congratulations to Keep Las Cruces Beautiful of Las Cruces, NM!

The City of Las Cruces has been focused on addressing the growing graffiti problem in their city and implemented a comprehensive graffiti reduction program. This program included prompt reporting, quick abatement, community prevention and educational programs. Unfortunately, they were still seeing a rise in graffiti vandalism even with this well developed program.

With this issue on hand, Keep Las Cruces Beautiful (KLCB) applied for the FlashCAM Grant to add a “new tool for the enforcement of existing graffiti codes and energize the graffiti enforcement community.” KLCB works closely with the Las Cruces Police Department (LCPD) Codes Enforcement division, and together they serve as the dedicated leaders overseeing this program to protect the community from graffiti vandals.

In addition to deterring the taggers with their new FlashCAM, they plan to use the high resolution images that are captured on the FlashCAM to help them prosecute these graffiti vandals. This increase in arrest and prosecutions will also serve as a deterrent by sending the message that graffiti in Las Cruces will not be tolerated.

For more information on Graffiti Hurts or the 2013 Grant Program, please visit their website at www.graffitihurts.org.