The hidden message in gang graffiti

It’s technology that could stop crime, before it starts.

Researchers at Purdue University have developed a new cell phone application to help police interpret gang graffiti messages.

Gangs often use graffiti to send messages or challenges to rival gangs

The project is known as “Gang Graffiti Automatic Recognition” or GARI.

You take picture of the graffiti with a smart phone and then the application will show you other gang graffiti images within 500 feet of the picture that you took, or all the images that were taken in the last few months or weeks.

Researchers say the application will help police catalog, even predict, gang activity.

The project was funded but the Department of Homeland Security.