Successful anti-graffiti campaign to continue

The campaign to prevent tagging and vandalism of Christchurch buses has been so successful that it’s being continued past the initial September and October timeframe.

The initiative, undertaken through a collaboration by Environment Canterbury, Police, Maori Wardens and Christchurch City Council, has seen eight people to date arrested for a range of offences on buses and several more caught while etching windows or tagging.

Inquiries are continuing to identify some offenders caught on surveillance cameras and it is likely criminal charges will result.

“We are pleased with the results so far and the bus operators are really happy too as there has been a significant decrease in offending,” says Police Senior Sergeant Glenn Nalder “but we remain serious about reducing amount of graffiti even further.”

Some feedback received from taggers about the campaign shows it is a definite deterrent as they don’t like the heightened risk they now face of being caught.  Along with the potential criminal charges, offenders are also trespassed from the buses for two years.

“The plan is to now expand on the success of the campaign so far and progressively roll it out across the entire bus network, particularly on routes with known vandalism issues.

“This means surveillance cameras will be used on more buses to keep identifying offenders as well as the continued presence of plain clothes police officers on the buses to catch the vandals in the act.”

The public are also urged to carry on calling 111 and providing as much detail as they can if they see someone tagging.

If you see graffiti on a structure eg fences, parks or buildings, please provide the Christchurch City Council with the address details for them to investigate removal. If possible take photos and email them to info@ccc.govt.nz for the database. If your property is tagged with graffiti Christchurch City Council may be able to help with this. Call them on 941 8999 or 0800 VANDAL.