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GREENSBORO - The parks and recreation department would like to expand a successful tactic used against vandalism in parks to include the city's cemeteries.

All four of the city's cemeteries have been vandalized in the past year, said Chris Wilson, a division manager with the parks and recreation department.

In Union Cemetery, the city's historic cemetery, vandals knocked down headstones.

In Forest Lawn Cemetery, gravestones were spray-painted. In Maplewood Cemetery, cut fences would be repaired and then cut again within days, vandals would dump trash in the cemetery and spray paint gravestones with gang graffiti, Wilson said.

Councilwoman T. Dianne Bellamy-Small asked the department to use the automatic, solar-powered cameras that have rotated among the city's parks for the past year to keep an eye on cemetery vandalism.

Bellamy-Small asked that the cameras be considered as a safety measure because there's not enough manpower to patrol the cemeteries all the time, she said.

"It's an effective tool," Bellamy-Small said.

The vandalism at Maplewood was all but stopped after intervention from the city's gang unit, said police officer Ernest Cuthbertson, a member of the gang unit.

The cameras could free up police resources to address other crimes, while still deterring vandalism at the park, Wilson said.

The cameras, which are bulletproof and solar-powered, turn on when they detect someone nearby when the park is closed. Speakers attached to the camera announce that the park is closed, and a photo is being taken and will be sent to police.

Then, the camera takes three flash-lit photos. The photos always follow the same pattern, Wilson said.

First, "a look of shock and horror," Wilson said. That is followed, seconds later, by a photo of "full running motion." And the last one: "Nothing," Wilson said.

No one has yet been charged with any crime as a consequence of the flash cameras, Wilson said.

"There is never a need because it stops them before they do something stupid," Wilson said.

Wilson hopes he can find grant money or donors to increase the number of $6,000 cameras in use and encourage city residents to take ownership of cemeteries the way they have through the successful "Park Watch" initiative.

Of the five cameras the city has, three rotate among dozens of parks.

"It's a blessing to have so many parks; it's absolutely wonderful," Wilson said. "But as a community as a whole, we have to take ownership."

Staff writer Amanda Lehmert contributed to this report.

Contact Sonja Elmquist at 373-7090 or sonja.elmquist@news-record.com