RICHMOND, B.C. -- A chain of convenience stores is using Richmond as a testing ground for a new device designed to drive problem youth away from storefronts.
The ultrasonic device, known as The Mosquito, emits an unpleasant but benign high-pitched sound that only young people can hear, Dynatrac Systems Canada Inc., which is marketing it in Canada, told The Richmond Review.
Mounted at a storefront, it's aimed at shooing away loitering youth. Frequencies the device uses are inaudible to most adults over the age of 25, due to normal [image-nocss] gradual hearing loss.
Dynatrac spokesperson Michael Gibson wouldn't say which chain is installing the device in Richmond, but told the newspaper two stores will be equipped with the specialized speaker and another one will be tested in Victoria, B.C.
Installation at the first Richmond store was finished Wednesday.
The first 5 minutes we had it installed, they turned it on, and the kids that normally hang around there moved across the street in three minutes. We timed it, said Gibson.
The concept of inaudible noise isn't new to teens. Gibson said teenagers are downloading a ring tone for their cell phones that their teachers can't hear.
According to Dynatrac, unwanted youth gatherings cause businesses to lose millions of dollars in lost profits.
Anti-social behavior such as graffiti spraying and vandalism has become the biggest threat to private property in the country in the last decade, Dynatrac said in a press release.
The product is already in use in the United Kingdom, but is only now being marketed in Canada. It's already been successfully used by a Maple Ridge elementary school to get rid of late-night problems of graffiti and broken windows.
The speaker, which can be rented for $3 per day, can be operated by a clerk via remote control or set on a timer.
For years convenience stores have tried to rid their parking lots of congregating youth with monotone speakers playing music that's unappealing to teens, according to the report.
The music doesn't really work, said Gibson. Kids are still hanging out. And you see a lot of stores have abandoned the idea of piping in music, Mozart or Beethoven.
But Richmond police Supt. Ward Clapham isn't recommending the technology to local businesses. When you displace kids, when you push them from one area, they just go somewhere else. That's not really solving the root of the problem, he said.
We're always looking for different ways to solve the problem, and I can't criticize The Mosquito as a possible way to solve problems, but I just think in Richmond we want to solve our problems differently, he told the newspaper.
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