Loveland deployed 50 crews of two, composed of a driver and a surveyor within 139 square miles of Detroit territory. Using their Google Nexus 7, they were “blexting” every property they spot around. Their tablets snap an image of the property followed by the answers to a simple questionnaire: “Is the property inhabited or vacant? Is the condition of the structure ‘good,’ ‘fair,’ or ‘recommended for demolition’?”
As the surveyor sends the information about the blexted property, the data are received by a quality control team that checks for errors and glitches. The back-end system and smartphone app updates the database so that the Detroit Blight Removal Task Force can map and catalogue the property.