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Graffiti vandals beware — there’s a new sheriff in town, and you won’t ever see him.
 About a dozen Scotts Valley Police Department members and their families, including Chief John Weiss (from front), officer Scott Freeman’s 11-year-old daughter, Hanna, and officer Scott Mitchell, showed up for graffiti cleanup Saturday, Dec. 22, in the back of Scotts Valley Sports Center. Lucjan Szewczyk/Press-Banner
Broadband Discovery Systems, a two-year-old company based in Scotts Valley, has developed a series of devices finely tuned to detect the sound of an aerosol spray can from as far as 35 feet away.
“I despise graffiti,” said president and chief executive Cory Stephanson, who worked with a team of engineers to build the device aimed to stymie graffiti vandals.
Stephanson and vice president Michael Neely discovered that $22 billion is spent every year in the United States dealing with graffiti, and they think their latest innovation will help.
The device, nicknamed “Project Merlin” after Stephanson’s son, has intricate sound recognition features that are tuned to detect only the specific sounds an aerosol can makes. When the sensor detects the sound of a can dispensing, it uses cell-phone-like technology to send out an alert.
The sensor can trigger an alarm, light or camera, as well as send a text-message alert to a roving security guard or to the police.
“A mall can deploy wireless units from one base unit that sends texts to an alarm infrastructure or to mall security,” Stephanson said.
For example, the moment someone discharges an aerosol can in one location at a mall, a roving security guard would receive a text message with the location and head out to catch the perpetrator in the act.
The Capitola Police Department has been beta-testing the police version of the sensors to help work out the kinks.
 Courtesy photo
“We didn’t get a real good ID on the individuals, because the lighting was low,” Ehle said.
The devices can be held in the palm of the hand and are designed to be encased in harmless-looking electrical boxes.
Project Merlin devices will be sold commercially starting in February. The company will sell the devices, which integrate with existing alarm systems, wholesale to alarm companies who can distribute to their clients, Stephanson said. Already, police departments in Santa Paula, New Jersey and Utah have signed on to purchase the system.
“We’re coming up with some really innovative solutions,” Stephanson said of his company’s recent products, which include a human hydration monitor and a gunshot recognition system.
The company’s latest project? Project Merlin’s cousin, a system that detects the sound of a marker on a mirror, used specifically to catch graffiti in bathrooms.
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