That same option exists on an android phone, at least on my G2. I can also go to the options on a picture and select "show on map" and it will load up google maps and show me exactly where it was taken. This is how I go back to graffiti later and paint over it. From the little amount of time I've spent with iphones I've seen it has a similar feature, although not as practical. Unless you want to see a bajillion dots on your map from where all your photos were taken.

But I can give you the exact latitude and longitude from my phone.

Oh and chula vista has a special gps enabled camera that works the same way. Its very neat.

Recent convo with the guy from NWgangs, hopefully I didn't scare him off.


July 26Bridges Justbridges
Hey there,

I'm part of a group of individuals involved in everything from homeless outreach to combating gang violence. A few of us are currently planning on working on something very similar to your project at NWgangs.com. I was wondering if you would be interested in collaboration with us. For the time being it looks like we'll be focusing on tracking gang territory via photographing/logging gang tags online, but we're definitely open to suggestions.

July 27Brad Nwgangs
I guess I could probably help you guys out, I run this site by myself and ain't really looking for anyone to join me though. I don't know if you've seen my Google Maps page, but I've created a gang territory map based on graffiti and info I've picked up over the years.

July 27Bridges Justbridges
That's fine, we're just doing similar things so I thought we might be able to help one another. By the way, the amount of info on your site is pretty impressive. How long have you been doing this?

July 27Brad Nwgangs
Since 2004

52 minutes agoBridges Justbridges
Impressive. How do you keep track of everything? We've been contemplating using flickr and geotagged photos in correlation with arcgis to make user-submitted content based map, but that's very involved. It seems like you've got something a little simple and perhaps more efficient.

25 minutes agoBrad Nwgangs
I just document things as best as I can. You should see my file folder of all the news articles and emails I've printed and saved. I ask a lot of questions, talk to gang members... I also use Flickr and geotag my photos. It is helpful to see where everyone is tagging. Sounds like I'm doing most the things you guys want to do. Why are you guys interested in gangs?

a few seconds agoBridges Justbridges
We're associated with the Real-Life Superhero movement. It's not quite as ridiculous as it sounds. At it's best, the "superhero" aspect is used as inspirational symbolism - the only thing "super" about it is normal people deciding that they can do more than that the normal person and actually have an immediate effect on important issues. It may sound weird, but with your 6 years mapping gang territories you'd fit in better than you'd expect.

Like I said, our work ranges from homeless outreach to preventing violent crime to anything else in between. Mapping out gang territories is one of the recent projects of the group - with the aim of monitoring and reducing crime related to gangs through things like surveillance, verbally mediating conflict, and the use of citizen's arrests when the situation warrants.

There are also efforts to map homeless populations and resources, develop reliable DIY armor and other tools, and form non-profit organisations. We'd love to have your help if you're interested.

Did he keep talking to you after that?

Not yet, but he's been pretty slow in getting back to me. You think I scared him?

What was the date of your last contact?

He just got back to me. He's heard a little of PJ and seems interested. I've no idea how he's actually connected to the area's gangs yet, but he's got my annon phone number. Hopefully I'll find out whether he's safe and still interested.

whats with you north pacific people and your secret phone numbers?

The guy is associated with the area's gangs. I'll hand out my number to almost everyone, but until I know the guy's intentions a little better he gets the spooky nerd number.

Okay that makes sense. I just see that trend with people up there.

I'm working on it, I swear.

I've seen those GPS cams. They even can tell the direction the camera was pointing and the actual location of the contents of the image when they're really expensive. Also, no word from Brad yet.

I sure wouldn't want to lose my personal phone on patrol with all my friends and family phone numbers in it. If you have to run suddenly while calling in a crime, it is a possibility. Sneaky aspects aside, there are good reasons for having a separate phone.

Should be getting a smart phone with a data plan in the near future, so I can start geotagging photos. Also, I'm almost done with my current mapping project, and should be able to start trying out attempting to map gang territories in a few weeks if people are interested.