Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Graffiti prevention

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Posted by Dominic Espinosa (Member # 2122) on 07-30-2008, 01:31 PM:

Plain and simple. What methods are you guys and girls using these days?

At some of my theaters we're currently employing a very expensive coating of some kind that is constantly being etched in.
It's supposedly there to prevent people etching the glass (the one that gets hit almost daily is in an urban redevelopment area).

We have the same stuff on our restroom mirrors and it's still a problem -- someone etches the coating, we replace it, it happens again.

I'd love to be able to have staff on-hand constantly to monitor this activity however the problem-child building in question is very large (3 floors, 8 restrooms) which makes this more difficult than usual.

So...What do you all do?

Posted by Mike Williams (Member # 1140) on 07-30-2008, 02:37 PM:

They are etching the metal bathroom mirrors right? Got any spare rectifiers sitting in the booth? You could wire it into the back of the mirror to give a nice little suprise to the next one that tries to etch anything. [evil]

ZAP!!!

Now for the serious answer: Is it practical to just take down the mirror in some of the smaller bathrooms?

Posted by Jim Bedford (Member # 4) on 07-30-2008, 04:57 PM:

Because we have just one toilet in our historic theatre we took out the mirror and placed it outside the bathroom. This was not to prevent graffiti but Luci figured out if people didn't have themselves to look at they wouldn't spend so much time there. She was right.

BTW, other than people making sure they don't have white powder on their nose or spinach in their teeth or were gazing at their makeup, why have mirrors in problem bathrooms at all?

As far as public areas go, how about setting up security cameras? They pay for themselves quickly or you can continue paying forever for repairs caused by tagging miscreants.

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 07-31-2008, 12:45 AM:

Gotta be careful tho about cameras in anywhere in the vacinity of a bathroom. Lawyers can smell that lawsuit two blocks away from your front door.

Posted by Jim Bedford (Member # 4) on 07-31-2008, 08:25 AM:

Should have figured that someone would take my "public areas" and confuse them with toilets that most would consider as private areas. No Frank, I was describing the "Toilet Cam" as a solution to the world's problems..... [Roll Eyes]

Posted by Kenneth Wuepper (Member # 1174) on 07-31-2008, 08:32 AM:

I do not know of any health department regulation requiring a mirror in any restroom. They are provided as a courtesy to the customer.

Courtesy abused = courtesy removed

KEN

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 07-31-2008, 06:59 PM:

quote: Kenneth Wuepper
Courtesy abused = courtesy removed

We had a soap pump in our restroom for quite a while - until it got ripped off of the wall. So we went to a bottle of liquid soap on the sink. People (girls, mostly) would squirt it on the walls, pour it in the sink, fill the bottle with water, drop the whole thing in the toilet, etc. So we went soap-less for awhile, which caused complaints, so now we have a bottle of hand sanitizer on the counter and a stack of "wet wipes" behind the counter that we give out on request.

I don't know what it is about restrooms that inspire vandalism. We virtually never have any problems anywhere else in the building, including the outside. (Knock on wood.)

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 07-31-2008, 09:37 PM:

Vandalism-reduction lessons learned from the drive-ins:

- Leave the doors to the restrooms propped open (if practical).

- Use light color schemes.

Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 08-01-2008, 05:57 AM:

Adding to Tim:

Remove writing EVERY NIGHT without fail. It will help!!

Notices and camera in the area of the bathroom that does not show the stalls. Louis

Posted by Galen Murphy-Fahlgren (Member # 4535) on 08-02-2008, 01:29 AM:

Well, not vandalism per se, but we've had 5 car windows broken into in two days, 4 in broad daylight, in our side lot, which is visible from the busiest street in town. The cops don't seem to care, despite the fact that the absolute absence of violent crime in our town means they literally have nothing better to do than deal with this. We waited a full half hour for them to show up tonight. We've taken to frequent patrolling of the lot, as well as checks for suspicious activity from the roof, but that didn't stop this last one. The people having sex in a car further down our lot didn't notice anything either.

I swear, this is not how things usually are here, except the worthless unresponsive cops.

Posted by Kenneth Wuepper (Member # 1174) on 08-02-2008, 05:50 AM:

Galen,

Please be aware that your parking lot may be private property. As such, it is the owner's responsibility to keep it safe. If the cars were parked on the street or in a city owned parking space, it would be the responsibility of the police to make it secure.

This is why there are private security companies with uniformed employees who 'police' private property for a fee.

Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 08-02-2008, 08:48 AM:

A very large national circuit (one of my customers) once had a similar problem. Rooftop commandos with radios and night-vision glasses stopped this dead in one week. Louis

Posted by Rick Hartmann (Member # 4806) on 08-02-2008, 12:28 PM:

quote: Louis Bornwasser
Rooftop commandos with radios and night-vision glasses

Where do I sign up for that job?

I once worked for a Shop-Rite in my town. This was back in my teen years, I think I was 15 at the time, but anyway, they used to have a huge problem with vandalism in the bathrooms. They tried everything they could think of, and didn't have much luck. Until one day a customer put a stop to it permanently...

Some punk kid thought it would be funny to etch a certain phrase into the mirror, i won't way exactly what it was, except that the first word started with "N" and it ended in "suck." Well needless to say, another customer walked in and caught him. He didn't take too kindly to it, and very abruptly beat the living crap out of the kid. The cops were called and it was a big mess, but all the local kids stopped doing it. To this day I still shop there, and their bathroom is always vandal-free. [Big Grin]

Posted by Jim Ziegler (Member # 86) on 08-02-2008, 02:37 PM:

quote: Galen Murphy-Fahlgren
The cops don't seem to care, despite the fact that the absolute absence of violent crime in our town means they literally have nothing better to do than deal with this. We waited a full half hour for them to show up tonight.

Realize that these are low priority calls, as such, you are going to have to wait until there is a unit available. Even if your city has low violent crime rates, that doesn't mean that there are not higher priority calls in the queue.

Posted by Galen Murphy-Fahlgren (Member # 4535) on 08-02-2008, 11:13 PM:

I realize the cops aren't my own private security force, but there really is nothing going on that they need to take a half hour to respond, when we have identified potential persons of interest who may leave at any time. My irritation with them extends much deeper than this one issue, even back past the enormous brawl in my lobby last fall in which they didn't even write down a plate number or accept any of the ones I got for them. That is quite another story, however. My issue is that their job is to prevent or punish crime, and when we hand them a crime scene that is almost guaranteed to produce more results, they go off to write speeding tickets for 3 over. My job is to play movies, not fight crime.

Anyhow, we had someone on the roof all day today, and frequent patrols through the lot, and had no further break-ins. It is surprising, however, how suspicious people's normal behavior is when you are really watching everyone. Honestly, how many times do you need to circle the lot, park, get out of your car, smoke get back in your car, smoke again, and leave? Apparently this is how most teenagers spend their Saturdays.

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 08-05-2008, 07:37 AM:

Install some security cams and record the feeds. That can be good for the cops to go on.

Posted by Galen Murphy-Fahlgren (Member # 4535) on 08-05-2008, 10:43 AM:

I've been saying that too for almost a year.

Posted by Phil Blake (Member # 2012) on 08-09-2008, 10:39 AM:

I heard somewhere some time ago that red and orange are not attractive colours to graffiti people , I thought this was a load of rubbish but strangley our cubical doors in the toilets at the old drive in were orange , 20 years went by and no one ever drew on them ???? believe it or not.

Posted by Allison Parsons (Member # 2728) on 08-09-2008, 10:56 AM:

quote: Dominic Espinosa
someone etches the coating

Are they etching it via etching cream, or just digging into the glass with a sharp point?

Posted by Dominic Espinosa (Member # 2122) on 08-12-2008, 07:14 PM:

Thus far no chemicals have been used -- this is what baffles me.

If people are tearing up the coating why the F are we coating the windows?

Do people really walk around with the tools to do this?

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 08-13-2008, 08:49 AM:

Yes they do, Dominic, and they need to have their fingers broken....in 3 places -- that's the very effective Iranian graffiti prevention.

Not only are cameras effective, but we have a few sensors that detect breaking sounds -- glass, percussive impact sound of metal or anything getting hit hard. It's not perfect and there can be some false triggers, but it can't hurt to investigate, even if you find nothing untoward is happening.

Posted by Bill Enos (Member # 440) on 08-14-2008, 07:49 PM:

On an inspection by the city health dept. 3 years ago they said we're required to have hand wipes of some sort, hand soap, hot water--110 degrees F, toilets must flush, sink drains must flow.
NO mention of toilet paper being required.

Want a secure parking lot? Try WalMart, the one about 3 miles from home has 12 cameras covering the lot, every square inch of the store is covered too. They claim every camera is recorded 24/7.

We remove or paint over all graffiti as soon as it's discovered, we're fortunate that we have very little problem with it though.

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 08-16-2008, 09:32 AM: