Kevin Fitzpatrick of Q-Star Technology, of Torrance, Calif., demonstrates the new anti-graffiti cameras. The cameras will operate from dusk to dawn and will be motion-activated.

The Providence Journal / Bob Thayer

PROVIDENCE — Vandals, trespassers and graffiti artists will soon be greeted by flashing cameras and a booming recording that informs them their crime has been caught on record.

The city will install six motion-sensor cameras at city parks as part of Mayor David N. Cicilline’s effort to cut down on graffiti and vandalism.

Cicilline and other city officials Wednesday morning showed off one camera recently installed at Iola French Park, in the Wanskuck neighborhood. The camera sits about 18 feet high on a light pole, encased in a steel box. It faces the playground area, which has been badly defaced by graffiti.

The cameras are solar-powered and, when tripped, snap up to four photos of about seven mega-pixels at the same time announcing to the intruders that their picture has been taken.

The voice recording bluntly commands: “Stop, you are entering a restricted area. Your photo has been taken and you will be prosecuted. Leave the area now.”

Photos are uploaded wirelessly to a laptop computer that will be monitored by the city Parks Department and forwarded to the Police Department’s Graffiti Task Force, according to Kevin Fitzpatrick, regional manager for Q-Star Technology, the company that manufactures the cameras.

The cameras will operate dusk till dawn, when parks are closed, so park-goers should not be worried about having their picture taken during park operating hours, said the mayor.

“It doesn’t sound like a really important thing, but graffiti is a quality-of-life issue,” said City Council President Peter S. Mancini, who represents the Wanskuck neighborhood.

“The parks are such a valuable resource in the community and graffiti is really a problem,” said Juliana Anderson, of the Friends of India Point Park, in the Fox Point neighborhood.

The cameras, costing about $6,000 each, will also be set up in Waterplace, Prospect, Neutaconkanut and Gano Street parks, but since they are portable, Cicilline says that the city will move them around as needed.

Cicilline has made graffiti cleanup one of his top priorities because, he says, “graffiti is a direct assault on neighborhoods that leads to neighborhood deterioration if it is left unchecked.”

He created the Graffiti Task Force in 2006 to clean up graffiti and offer rewards of up to $500 for information leading to the arrest of vandals.

The City Council, at the mayor’s urging, has increased the maximum penalty for graffiti offenses from $200 to $1,000 and added provisions calling for restitution for damages and 200 hours of community service.

City ordinance now makes it illegal to sell aerosol paint containers, broad-tipped markers, etching equipment, paint sticks or graffiti sticks to a minor without written permission from a parent or guardian.

The city set up a hot line to report graffiti, 1-800-TAGGERS, and reports can be filed online at www.providenceri.com/graffiti.

pmarcelo@projo.com