"The data the Stop Tags system can produce is far more advanced than we had previously," said Charles. The information it provides is beneficial not just to council. "Police have direct access to the data. Stop Tags is a dual-purpose system that allows the council to manage the removal side of things and assists police in the enforcement aspect of graffiti."
It was the Stop Tags system that enabled Hamilton Police graffiti liaison officer Craig Berquist to arrest Lance Larsen in November last year on more than 100 graffiti and burglary charges.
Lance's future looked decidedly bleak. However, when Craig began to see potential in the teenager, he pitched a plan to Lance to complete his community service hours with the Tagbusters team. Craig even gave Lance an old bike he'd got done up so he'd be able to bike from his Nawton home to the Tagbusters Duke St depot each day. "Everyone makes mistakes, but this has given Lance a chance to learn from his mistakes and to move forward," said Craig, who has forged a friendship with Lance.
Craig and Charles were impressed at Lance's attitude. He turned up to work every day in a positive frame of mind; it was clear he wanted to make an effort to change. And Lance learnt a lot while he completed 225 hours with the Tagbusters team. He said he realised the implications of tagging were far reaching, from the frustration experienced by property owners at the disregard for their property, to the council's financial burden of the clean-up costs. He experienced firsthand the painstaking effort it takes to remove or cover graffiti.
While Craig and Charles said their plan for Lance wouldn't have worked if he hadn't been on board, Lance said he couldn't have turned himself around without Craig and Charles' ongoing support. "I really appreciate what they've done for me." And now Lance, 18, has a job on the horizon. "It isn't a done deal yet, but it looks promising," said Lance. "It feels really good to have changed my life around."
Craig said Hamilton Police had several more arrests pending as a direct result of information provided by Stop Tags. "We have so much more information right at our fingertips now so there is a much higher chance that taggers will be caught and prosecuted." He said while taggers may think nothing of scribbling a "10 second" tag on a wall, there was "very real prospect" of the end result being a prison sentence.
Dealing with a never-ending barrage of graffiti could easily wear a person down, but Charles and his team are conscious of not letting it get to them. "The guys are very committed to their jobs. They have a strong sense of ownership and pride in the areas they look after. They see themselves as contributing in a really positive way to the city. That's what keeps me going too."
And the "guys", Charles says, are more than just painters. "They are all trade qualified. Really, they are graffiti removal technicians. There is so much more to the job than just painting over a tag. They have to assess what the tag has been created in, what removal method they need to use, and how best to cover the area. There is a lot more to it than meets the eye."
A trial that began earlier this year made use of the council's budget allocation for proactive graffiti solutions. An artist painted murals in 12 bus shelters and six pedestrian underpass tunnels. The bus shelter murals, in particular, drew a "really positive public response" and, as such, council is looking at painting up to another 20 bus shelters around the city in the next few months.
HOT SPOTS
Graffiti hot spots around the city are Nawton/Crawshaw/Grandview, followed by Melville and Enderley/Fairfield.
Charles says there isn't a typical demographic of a tagger, aside from age and gender - "they tend to be male teenagers".
Anecdotal evidence suggests taggers tend to be bored and/or may have a troubled family life.