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End Park Vandalism

End Park Vandalism

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Park Vandalism is a costly problem in the United States affecting all communities and the number of incidents is increasing every year. Vandalism, an old term from the 1700s during the French Revolution, is still happening today.  Sometimes it is affiliated with protests, unrest, and angry mobsters, but predominately it occurs at parks by youth who are bored or up to mischief. Ending park vandalism is difficult.

Parks are prime targets due to remote areas that are left unprotected.  Installing lighting and hiring around the clock security is costly and not practical.  To end park vandalism, some parks have installed traditional camera systems which incur costs for wiring power and making sure there is an adequate light source when it becomes dark, when most vandalism occurs. Although cost is a big factor in installing traditional surveillance, cost is not the only problem traditional surveillance brings to the table.  Typical video surveillance cannot produce quality images for prosecution and has shown to provide little to no deterrence in stopping vandalism.

In order to protect the new playground equipment, pavilion, and skate park, a Vandalism Prevention Program must be implemented.

A Vandalism Prevention Program includes:

Park Vandalism Deterrent Systems are completely self-contained, have their own power source and lighting.  They are specifically designed to stop unwanted activity in parks, such as vandalism.  They can be used anywhere, especially remote areas that are hard to monitor.

As the quality-of-life crimes increase, it is more important than ever that your parks’ department is equipped with the right tools to combat these nuisance crimes.

What is your park doing to end park vandalism?

#Saveourparks #novandalism #ParksandRec

Family in the park

Park Vandalism – Life Quality

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A community park adds a whole slew of value and quality to the life of the community.  Unfortunately, vandalism that occurs at the park has the opposite effect, stealing quality of life from the neighborhood and the surrounding city.

Parks provide a place to relax and detox from life’s constant demands.  Parks offer open spaces with grass for one to run and play ball, a playground to climb and swing, or a lake to feed the ducks. Regardless of the grounds, the open space to be free and play in the sun is a great way to fight depression.  However, visible vandalism can have the opposite effect, creating depression.

Parks are a great place to sweat out or relax from every day little stresses.  But park vandalism creates an unsafe space filled with danger and trepidation, causing anxiety and a feeling that the area is overrun by people who will not comply with the governing laws or respect the human being.  An unsafe park will foster more crime, making the whole community at risk to more violent crimes.

Parks bring value to the community financially.  Naturally, most people enjoy living close to a park they can enjoy within minutes.  A clean safe park with much to offer increases the property value of nearby homes and the whole community reaps the benefits of a desired area to live.  Sadly, park vandalism decreases the property value of homes nearby and the whole community suffers the loss of value.

Park Vandalism creates depression, anxiety, and loss of financial stability.

What can be done?

To keep a park safe, clean, and very attractive, parks should offer a variety of activities, keep the park lively and full of people, and provide security.  A Park Vandalism Deterrent Program should be implemented using Park Vandalism Cameras, specifically design to stop vandalism.  Traditional video surveillance does not stop quality of life crimes.

City Parks and Crime

City Parks and Crime

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Criminal activity at community parks creates a variety of effects on society, from fear of the area to complete avoidance of the park. Crime in city parks has an impact on the perception of the city to the public that can deter new people from moving into the community. This as well causes residents to move out of the area, halting economic growth. But what types of crimes are happening near or in city parks?

According to several reports, larceny seems to be the most prevalent crime. Most of the parks’ theft-related offenses involve property stolen from parked vehicles. Second to cars broken into and burglary of property stolen out of the vehicle is an actual auto-theft of the vehicle. There is also a high number of attempted pedestrian robberies including armed robbery. The majority of these pedestrian larcenies are aggravated assaults, and some lead to homicides.

Following pedestrian robberies and assaults are nuisance crimes, such as illegal fly-tipping, and those that deface the park property known as park vandalism and graffiti. This usually displays itself in the form of a can of spray paint and drawn obscenities, with written curse words and other offensive language. These nuisance crimes typically happen at nighttime when common surveillance cameras cannot view the area, and where there is little to no lighting. All of this, of course, affects the outlook of the area for whomever else visits the community besides its city residents. Nuisance crimes also invite more serious crimes, creating a down roll spiral of the community safety.

Protecting our city parks means protecting its community residents. A park’s appearance attracts its company. Therefore, by deterring nuisance crimes like park vandalism, we will also be deterring more violent crimes by default. Protect our parks and protect the people in it and all around it, rather during the day or at night. You can’t stop a crime with surveillance alone, but you have a much greater chance at stopping crime if there are effective Park Vandalism Deterrent Systems, specifically designed to stop unwanted activity in parks.

Our city parks and their communities deserve better. Protect your community park and chase criminal activity away.

Stopping Vandalism and Juvenile Crime-Parks

Stopping Vandalism and Juvenile Crime-Parks

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It is difficult to stop vandalism and juvenile crime at parks. Scribbles in permanent ink marking a territory. At the favorite place to ride… a vulgar image done with a can of spray paint that can be seen from outer space. Nasty words written inside a slide tunnel at a children’s playground. This is known as graffiti, and it is prevalent amongst our youth.

Maybe there’s that one kid that is actually a fantastic artist but doesn’t have anywhere else to vent their decorative literacy. Sometimes it’s because they don’t feel socially accepted anywhere, so they play school hooky and ride their bike to the local skatepark for the soul purpose of finding a solitary place to do what they want. Sometimes it is not for the purpose of being a loner, so they recruit a couple friends to follow suit. Maybe some creative kid is truly, deeply angry at another kid, or maybe they’re just an angry individual due to a youth mental-illness or for other reasons.

Regardless of the individual and underdeveloped reasoning behind a child’s poor decision to vandalize… it’s a well-known fact that kid’s copy other kids. And whomever, or sometimes whatever, is their strongest influence you can bet they will take it on and add it to their collection of role models. It’s a pattern we see in all youth, including and sometimes especially in teens. Unfortunately, Youth Incarceration is currently very high in the United States. It really, truly does not have to be this way. Although it is one great thing to have a Juvenile Detention Reform, that is a big responsibility to take on and one must know what they’re doing in order to truly help reform the youth vandal. One place to start is by cleaning up the child’s playground environment, so that another kid is not influenced by their unique form of talents that should be better displayed elsewhere. Clean recreation areas are known to have healthier impacts on our kids.

However, cleaning up the same old illicit scribbles over and over can get old quickly, not to mention expensive. Instead, the Park Director should focus more on Graffiti Deterrence and Vandalism Prevention, rather than on the energy spent painting over the same wall time and time again. That energy and extra finances could be better spent on helping our juveniles become better adults. And maybe, those kids will turn around to be the best graffiti prevention out of them all!

What is your park doing to prevent vandalism?