 Taggers be warned - you're on camera.
A security camera designed to catch taggers in the act has been installed in a suburban Whangarei street, the first of its kind to be introduced in Northland.
The high-tech night vision camera was fixed to a power pole outside the Whangarei Bowling Club on Second Ave on Friday, in a Whangarei District Council anti-graffiti initiative.
The club's outside walls are constantly targeted by taggers, especially during weekends and at night.
Club secretary Garry Houlahan hoped the camera would save time and money cleaning up graffiti.
"The walls have become a bit of [an] invitation to taggers and hopefully the camera discourages them."
Council safety adviser Philip Shaw said the council decided to install the $10,000 rapid deployment surveillance camera on Second Ave after statistics showed it was one of the streets most targeted by taggers.
"Working with police, D'tag and the community, we found there's a need for something like this and thought `let's try it out'. The camera has special features like night vision, the pictures are of excellent quality and it's made according to our specifications."
Mr Shaw said the camera could be moved around to tackle graffiti prevalent in many areas around Whangarei.
About 35 Second Ave residents held a meeting with council staff and police on Thursday night to discuss other ways they could fight graffiti, such as setting up a neighbourhood watch zone.
Resident Mary Carthew hoped the new camera would deter taggers. "We've got a little action group which is moving towards setting up a neighbourhood watch zone and other things like painting out tagging," she said.
Another resident, who did not want to be named for fear her property would be targeted, said the camera was a good idea as graffiti was "out of control".
Te Ora Hou, an agency contracted by the council to run graffiti-removal service D'Tag, has recently involved young offenders in its clean-up work.
Manager Lou Davies said four taggers, who had been caught in the act, were helping the two D'Tag workers.
"We seem to be getting a bit on top of the situation, but tagging certainly hasn't slowed down."
Mr Davies said Whangarei's CBD, Tikipunga and Kamo had long been problem areas, but Kensington had been hard hit in the past month.
Whangarei police community safety officer Sergeant James McCullough said the moveable camera would help greatly in deterring taggers.
"Anything that helps catch taggers, we're all for it," he said.
Graffiti now carries a maximum penalty of three months' imprisonment or a $2000 fine.
Until a law change this year, graffiti was classified as wilful damage and carried a maximum $200 fine.
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