Hidden Camera to Record Taggers : Graffiti: The remote-controlled video device will be equipped with infrared technology to work at night.

Like cities across the country, Palmdale is enlisting the help of video cameras to catch graffiti vandals.

But Palmdale’s graffiti war will have two key twists: There’s no cameraman. Moreover, the camera can see in the dark, enabling it to capture facial features from 200 feet away.

The city has been fighting a losing battle with a more traditional arsenal of anti-graffiti weapons, such as a full-time painting crew, tipster rewards and a volunteer telephone hot line for citizens to report graffiti.

“It’s a societal problem,” said Palmdale Community Relations Officer Terry Stubbings. “The city of Palmdale isn’t suffering anything any other cities are not.”

But the new camera will be rotated through various points throughout the city to catch graffiti “taggers” or perhaps drug dealers and prostitutes.

When Stubbings and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Lee D’Errico begin their nighttime graffiti surveillance missions next month, Palmdale will become perhaps the first city to use a remote-control video camera equipped with infrared technology for spotting taggers at night.

The $8,600 camera and related equipment, funded with county and state drug-forfeiture money and corporate donations, was put together by Brooke Sewell, a self-proclaimed tinker and owner of a commercial security alarm company in Palmdale.

Sewell, a former Army electronics technician with experience installing laser image finders in attack helicopters, approached city officials in January with a proposal to create the covert camera package after seeing a newspaper article about Palmdale’s continuing graffiti problem.

In September, after seeing a local newspaper story about the Palmdale School District’s plan to buy a Canadian video surveillance system to quell discipline problems and vandalism on school buses, Sewell contacted the district. He underbid the Canadian firm, and school officials have credited his $16,100 system with cutting their discipline problems on buses by half.

Last year, Palmdale removed and painted over more than 673,000 square feet of graffiti, an 181% increase over 1991. Since the city instituted anti-graffiti programs in 1988, it has paid out 19 $1,000 rewards for tips leading to convictions. Another 33 cases prompted by tips are pending.

There are several graffiti-plagued areas in Palmdale. Some of those walls, overpasses and businesses are even sprayed nightly or weekly. Those spots will first to be targeted by the camera, D’Errico said.

The camera will be hidden on rooftops, in shadows or in bushes, and the images it captures will be monitored by D’Errico and Stubbings in a sheriff’s undercover vehicle about a quarter of a mile away.

“We won’t be in plain sight,” D’Errico said. “Some of these areas are near open fields. The camera will allow us to stay out of sight. If we parked a vehicle out there, we would raise suspicion.”

From the surveillance vehicle, Stubbings and D’Errico will be able to control the camera via UHF radio signals, making it pan, focus and zoom. They can also switch on an infrared illuminator as needed.

Even if taggers are not apprehended on the spot, the videotapes may help authorities arrest them later or be used by prosecutors in court.

“It will help us,” D’Errico said. “I think it will be real effective for what we’re doing--especially for graffiti surveillance. It’s often out there in the open. For narcotics, it gives us the chance to see who’s doing what without jeopardizing deputies’ safety.”

Sewell said he would like to market his camera to other sheriff and police agencies. This month he contacted the cities of Burbank and Glendale to gauge their interest.

While others watch sitcoms to pass the time, Sewell sits in his shop thinking of ways to use electronic technology to solve problems.

“I know there are things out there that will help society,” he said.