Los Angeles, Ca
Santa Monica man creates 'diversion security' device to deter homeless camping
Frustrated by the unhoused population in his neighborhood, a Santa Monica man has developed a chirping deterrent that he believes bothers transients enough that they will find another place to camp out.
Stephen McMahon, who has lived in Santa Monica for decades, calls his motion-sensing device the Blue Chirper because of the blue strobe light and cricket-like noise it emits.
“I call it diversion security, that is we’re diverting them away from our 20-block radius somewhere else,” McMahon told KTLA’s Carlos Saucedo.
The Santa Monica resident said he came up with the idea after seeing an influx of homeless people using alleyway-facing carports to sleep in overnight.
“I’ve lived here for over 30 years, and I’ve seen this neighborhood, which was just paradise, it was beautiful, deteriorate over the last five to six years,” he said. “I want to push these people out of here and bring Santa Monica back to the way it was.”
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Stephen McMahon seen working on his non-aggressive homeless deterrent device in Santa Monica on Sept. 24, 2024. (KTLA) -
A handmade wooden box holds the electronics for the Blue Chirper, which is meant to deter homeless camping. (KTLA) -
A blue strobe light that’s motion activated, along with cricket-like chirping noise to deter homeless from sleeping in the area. (KTLA) -
A Blue Chirper, meant to deter homeless camping, seen beneath a cabinet in a carport. (KTLA) -
A homeless person seen leaving a carport after the Blue Chirper is activated. (Stephen McMahon)
Building the Blue Chirper, though, wasn’t an easy undertaking, with McMahon saying he had one failure after another until, finally, he had an aha moment.
“I changed the approach that I was using, and it worked,” he explained.
The device’s electronics are held inside a wooden box that McMahon makes by hand. The device has worked so well with neighbors that he is now branching out, selling the Blue Chirper to local businesses.
“They barely even sit down and they leave,” McMahon said of transients who come across the noise and light the device creates.
His personal surveillance cameras have caught quite a few people leaving the carport immediately once the device starts blinking and chirping.
So far, he’s made about a dozen of the Blue Chirpers and says he has about a dozen more on backorder. He believes the demand for his device will go up while the homelessness crisis continues.
“Look, as long as it’s a sound you hear in nature and it’s not louder than an actual cricket, you’re going to be fine,” he said. “Nobody can complain about it.”