Graffiti: do we care?

GRAFFITI and tagging have increased markedly in Wanganui over the past year, and Wanganui's police chief believes it's a sign of a community that doesn't care.
Inspector Duncan MacLeod said graffiti, and tagging especially, created perceptions that the community was unsafe.
"A little old lady certainly wouldn't feel safe walking down a street covered in graffiti, especially toward the hours of darkness," Mr MacLeod said.
"And it certainly conjures up the impression that the citizens here just don't care about their city. Worse still, it suggests these vandals have won," he said.
"I had some friends down here just before Labour Weekend, and they just couldn't believe the amount of graffiti in Wanganui compared to other cities they had been to and they thought it reflected badly on Wanganui."
In the past 12 to 18 months, Mr MacLeod said, there had been a big increase in the amount of graffiti and tagging around the city.
He said other cities and towns around the country did have problem with this sort of vandalism but said in most cases those communities were taking affirmative action to solve the problem.
"In those places the police move in behind to support the community," he said.
This included local authorities maintaining graffiti squads similar to the one Wanganui had, but which faded in 2004.
He said the increase in the amount of tagging meant it was appearing all over the city and was not confined to specific areas.
Mr MacLeod said Wanganui Police continued to do work on the problem, acting on information received from the public, which included such things as time, date and place of the offending.
"We have had calls come in from the public telling us that there are people out on the street right now. But sometimes those calls have come at times when we've been snowed under attending other calls and haven't been able to act there and then.
"Within our resources we'll respond, and we'll follow up on information in relation to details of suspects and look at collating the amount of graffiti and particularly tagging around the city in an effort to identify those responsible."
He said those carrying out the tagging covered a fairly broad age range, from pre-teens to those in their 20s.
"For all these people, fame is the motivator. They see it as making their mark around the city.
"Shame is the de-motivator. That means getting caught, being seen doing graffiti removal work or community service. They're things we have to work at."
But he said police are relying on information from the public to have success stamping out this wanton vandalism.
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