Council asks public to turn graffiti detective

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Graffiti vandals are signing themselves into trouble by spray painting buildings with their ‘tags’. Renfrewshire Council and Strathclyde Police are setting up a dedicated web page to publicise individual tags in an effort to identify vandals and cut the £150,000 annual, graffiti, clean-up bill.

Councillor Brian Lawson, Convener of Renfrewshire Council’s Housing and Community Safety Board, said, “Graffiti is one of those crimes that is regarded as harmless by those who do it. But in reality graffiti blights an area, is intimidating, often offensive and expensive to clean up. Vandals also frequently steal the paint they use to tag buildings.

“The Council works closely with Strathclyde Police to stamp out this problem and now we are asking the public to turn graffiti detective and help us put names against the tags that scar Renfrewshire.”

Inspector John Carlin, Strathclyde Police, said, "Vandalism has a direct effect on our communities. Tagging is a specific form of graffiti that in addition to causing defacement of property, in some cases can raise the levels of fear in a community.

"It is important that we recognise that it is an offence and we will continue to report those who are caught tagging on any property. Strathclyde Police will continue to tackle this issue.

"I would encourage anyone who has information about this form of offending to contact the police or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111, where calls are free and anonymity can be maintained."

Renfrewshire Council maintains a database of graffiti images. These will be publicised on the Community Website at www.renfrewshire.gov.uk/graffiti.

The Council can only remove graffiti from its own properties. There are some exceptions to this rule. The Council will remove graffiti that is racist, sexist, sectarian or offensive where-ever it appears. The Council can’t remove graffiti from private property. This is the owner’s responsibility. Similarly, removing graffiti from things like bus shelters and telephone boxes is the service company’s job.

There are some areas where the Council will remove graffiti regardless of who owns the building that it appears on. These are places where it is felt that the graffiti will increase the risk of blighting the area. These are:

Paisley - Blackhall, Cart Corridor, Feguslie Park, Foxbar, Glenburn, Millarston, Moorpark, Thrushcraigs and West End
Johnstone - Johnstone, Johnstone Castle.

Graffiti can be reported online using the Community website or by phoning 0800 389 8623.

Press release: Thursday 9 August 2007