Graffiti cleanup takes a
big chunk out of municipal budgets. The City of Denver alone spends about $2
million dollars a year to clean up graffiti, RTD spends about $1 million.
By comparison, Phoenix, AZ. spends over $6 million a year in graffiti removal.
Do we want to ignore this problem and watch it to get worse, and more costly
to the tax payers?
Graffiti is the most
common type of property vandalism (35%) according to the U.S. Bureau of
Justice.
Immediate removal -
within 24-48 hours - is the key to successful graffiti prevention.
There are four types of
graffiti; tagger graffiti, gang graffiti, hate messages and generic
(non-threatening messages like "Bobby loves Suzy" or "Class of 2003").
About 80% of graffiti is
"tagger" graffiti. Nationally, gang graffiti makes up about 10% of graffiti.
There are four primary
motivating factors for graffiti vandalism; fame, rebellion, self-expression,
and power.
Getting the media to
publish photos and videotape of graffiti is often the ultimate fame for
graffiti vandals.
