Case Studies

Challenge Gatineau's award-winning graffiti prevention program is built around three main components of prevention, clean-up and bylaws. A core component of the prevention strategy is to actually encourage the legal creation of public art through over 40 designated walls. This provides youth with an opportunity to express their creativity in a safe environment while encouraging respect for private property. Equally important in the battle against vandalism is Gatineau's cleanup strategy involving municipal, public and private parties. Prior to introducing GIS into the cleanup and prevention process, graffiti incidents were managed on a case-by-case basis and the city did not maintain an inventory of past occurrences. As a result, staff were unable to track and analyze graffiti patterns to gain perspective on priority areas throughout the city. It was also difficult to share incidents with key stakeholders such as the city's police department. To more effectively manage and prevent vandalism, Gatineau needed to leverage a technology that would enable city staff to accurately record incident-related details, maintain a historical database of events, analyze trends and proactively plan prevention strategies. Mobile app supports swift clean-up & prevention of citywide vandalism Whether viewed as artistic expression or acts of vandalism, graffiti is an expensive reality that costs municipalities and tax payers millions of dollars every year. La Ville de Gatineau is considered a leader in the prevention of graffiti, and developed a unique program that resulted in a staggering 60% decrease in vandalism-related complaints. As part of this effort, the city leveraged ArcGIS to build a custom mobile solution that enables the swift identification and cleanup of illegal tags and graffiti. 1 Esri Canada | Gatineau becomes a leader in graffiti prevention

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