A new, high-tech GPS camera helps build cases against Chandler graffiti vandals.

The cameras, used by Chandler gang detectives and the city's graffiti remover, date and time stamp the markings. A photo of the graffiti is fed into a database that connects it to other graffiti created by the same artist or gang, or other graffiti left in nearby locations.

The camera helped make a case against Avery Lee Cooper, a 31-year-old transient whom police connected in March to 17 different graffiti markings left since August, police said.

Police say Cooper had been spraying his moniker, Base, and "ST," for Santan Bloods, as well as his "sect name" of "NBSK", over a 2-square-mile section of downtown Chandler.

Chandler residents welcome graffiti removal

On March 23, police chased Cooper, who was driving a car they said was stolen. An officer who stopped him saw something on him that bore his moniker, police said.

Police fed the moniker into the database and pulled up 18 incidents of graffiti they say were created by Base. Cooper admitted to all but one of them, police said.

There is a difference between graffiti and tags, said Detective David Ramer, a police spokesman.

"Taggers are almost like artists, they are serious and creative," Ramer said. They like the idea of others seeing their names, he said.

The city's 10 street gangs scrawl graffiti to define territory and send messages, he said. It is done quickly, and usually consists of a gang's initials.