7 December 2006

Manukau puts taggers in the frame

Graffiti vandals beware – Manukau City Council has its eye on you.

At today’s meeting of the Community Safety Committee councillors decided to enlist the services of a private investigation company to work with the Manukau Beautification Trust on apprehending taggers throughout Manukau.

The decision follows a successful pilot programme earlier this year. A joint initiative of council, the trust, a private investigation company and police, the pilot led to evidence against a major recidivist tagger and identifications of other offenders being handed to the police.

The private investigation company also revealed that a small number of individuals are responsible for the large amount of graffiti vandalism plaguing the city.

Councillor Dick Quax, Chairman of the Community Safety Committee, is delighted with the introduction of a graffiti enforcement programme.

“I am sure that, like me, most Manukau residents have had a gutsful of this destructive, mindless vandalism.

“The Beautification Trust does a wonderful job of removing the thousands of tags that are a blight on our landscape; however enforcement against taggers is a specialised job and if we are going to catch these offenders then we need to present the police with indisputable evidence that can lead to an arrest and prosecution.”

A similar programme has been running in Auckland city for some time and has helped them apprehend and prosecute nearly 500 taggers.

The cost of the programme for the next six months is being met out of existing budgets.

ENDS

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