Martin Ryan from Queensland Rail has revealed a new secret weapon to catch vandals.The weapon is a high-tech camera that can be moved into secret locations, and it has been put on the Gold Coast line, which has been identified as a graffiti hotspot.Mr Ryan says the high-tech camera is similar to a virtual fence.”People will cross a line, and they won’t know that there is a heat and also a motion detector there,” Mr Ryan said.Once the motion detector has been triggered, images of the vandals are sent to a control centre that is monitored around the clock.According to Mr Ryan, the heat sensor camera will be moved around the network, and complement another 8000 security cameras around the state.”This has only been going for a few months now, and we’ve already had arrests and charges laid,” he said.In addition to the technology used to catch vandals, police are acting on intelligence to stay one step ahead of the vandals by predicting when and where they’ll strike next.

According to inspector Steve Imhoff, head of Queensland’s police railway squad, graffiti isn’t art, it’s a criminal offence.”Police on trains wait for the offenders to arrive, and according to our intelligence, the people turn up and police are able to chase them down on foot and apprehend them,” Mr Imhoff said.Queensland’s Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie says the government is also cracking down on those behind the spray can sprees.”We’ve partnered with councils right around Queensland by introducing new offences and increased the penalties for graffiti offences from five to seven years,” Mr Bleijie said.Offenders will also be forced to help with the costly clean-up, and potentially serve up to 40 hours of community service, according to Mr Bleijie.

Source: 7NEWS