In an effort to curb vandalism, a trial in Sydney has turned trains into electronic bloodhounds. Dubbed mousetrap, the technology can detect the vapours from spray cans and alert the police.
Travel on public transport is bad enough without people tagging the inside of trains (though we would be totally open to actual murals) and removing graffiti cost taxpayers $34 million last year.
Sydney trains has said they actually have to remove about 11,000 tags from trains each month.
The electronic sensors work by detecting the volatile compounds in both spray cans and markers. The system triggers CCTV monitoring back to Sydney Trains staff, who can then provide up to date information to the police.
The system cost about $500,000 dollars – pretty cheap compared to the ongoing bill for clean-up. In a trial beginning mid last year, the system has led to the arrest of 30 people.
Now if only they could do something about people who play music on their phones without headphones.
[ABC]