|
 Clark
County
, Metro and several community partners introduced a
variety of new and aggressive initiatives to clean up
graffiti and crack down on vandals as part of an ongoing
anti-graffiti effort.
The
latest initiatives, part of the county’s “Targeting
Area Graffiti” campaign unveiled in March 2006,
include the following highlights:
-
A “Turn-In-A-Tagger”
reward program offering up to $500 for information
leading to the arrest of graffiti vandals. Callers
can remain anonymous if they call Crime Stoppers of
Nevada at (702) 385-5555.
-
An Adult Graffiti Offender
pilot program that puts adult vandals age 18 and
over to work cleaning up graffiti as part of their
court-ordered community service. The program,
created by
Clark County Justice Court
and
Clark
County
’s Public Response Office, is patterned after the
successful Juvenile Graffiti Offender program that
Clark
County
’s Department of Juvenile Justice Services
launched in May with the support of Juvenile Judge
William Voy in
Clark
County
’s Eight Judicial District Court.
-
The upcoming introduction of
changes to
Clark
County
code to strengthen the existing commercial abatement
and lock-up laws.
Clark
County Commission Chairman Rory Reid and Vice-Chair
Myrna Williams welcome the expansion of the
anti-graffiti effort. The commissioners pioneered the
original plan, which called for fighting graffiti in
four key ways: increased enforcement, tougher penalties,
stepped up public outreach and expanded community
service. Supporters of the effort include District
Attorney David Roger, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police
Department officials, Clark County District Court and
Justice Court
, the cities of
Las Vegas
,
North Las Vegas
and
Henderson
, the Clark County School District, Nevada Power, the
Las Vegas
Chamber
of Commerce, the 15,000-member Greater Las Vegas
Association of REALTORS® and Outdoor Promotions Inc., a
local company that operates and maintains transit bus
shelters throughout the community.
“Graffiti
is a crime that costs us millions of dollars every year
and hurts our neighborhoods,” Commissioner Reid said.
“We’re gaining a lot of partners in our fight
against graffiti from average citizens to large local
corporations that have taken an interest in our
campaign. These new initiatives demonstrate what we as a
community can do when we work together to solve a
problem.”
The
Southern Nevada Graffiti Coalition, a public-private
partnership that includes the county and area cities
among its membership, teamed up with Crime Stoppers of
Nevada to develop the “Turn-In-A-Tagger” program.
Crime Stoppers is managed by Metro but funded through
private donations. Metro,
Henderson
and
North Las Vegas
police will track down leads on graffiti vandals that
come in through Crime Stoppers.
“Graffiti
vandalism is the tip of a much larger iceberg,” said
Sheriff Bill Young of Metro. “Most graffiti
vandals are also involved in other property crimes, and
many ultimately commit violent crimes against persons.
Working with the community and the court system, this
law enforcement task force will aggressively pursue
these investigations, and arrest those responsible for
committing these crimes.”
Adults
arrested for graffiti also will face sentences that may
include cleaning up graffiti as part of a new pilot
program created by
Clark County Justice Court
and
Clark
County
’s Public Response Office. The first cleanup with
adult offenders is expected to occur before the end of
the year.
“There’s
a perception that only youngsters do graffiti, but a lot
of the vandalism you see is done by adults over the age
of 18, frequently as part of gang activity,” said Las
Vegas Township Justice Court Chief Judge James Bixler.
“Now judges will have the option of sentencing adults
convicted of graffiti-related crimes to working on
clean-up crews as part of their punishment. I’m sure
it’s going to be a popular program with both judges
and prosecutors because it holds vandals directly
accountable for their crimes.”
The
“Turn-In-A-Tagger” initiative also is being
supported with several new public outreach and
advertising elements. The
Clark
County
School District
will display posters promoting the reward program in
middle and high schools in the
Las Vegas
Valley
– about 120 schools in all. The posters, patterned
after the campaign’s original yellow artwork featuring
a red and blue “Targeting Area Graffiti” logo, also
is available for free to businesses willing to display
them on their property. Posters are produced in English
and Spanish and can be requested through the Southern
Nevada Graffiti Coalition Hotline at (702) 455-4509.
Outdoor
Promotions Inc. is donating bus shelter display space
for 60 new billboards to promote the reward program. The
new billboards are in addition to 60 other campaign
billboards the company has had on display since March.
Five of the new billboards will be in Spanish.
The
Greater Las Vegas Association of REALTORS® also is
donating a billboard for six months to educate the
public about the reward program. The billboard replaces
one promoting the Southern Nevada Graffiti Hotline that
has been on display at various locations in the valley
since this spring. The REALTORS® also donated $5,000 to
the county to help pay for an ad on the popular Web site
myspace.com. The Web site is located at www.myspace.com/targetingareagraffiti.
The
county is paying the remaining $4,500 cost to place the
ad on myspace.com for one month. The ad will link to the
“Targeting Area Graffiti” campaign Web site section
on www.accessclarkcounty.com.
In addition, Clark County Television (CCTV) Channel 4
also produced public service announcements in English
and Spanish promoting the reward program. A
version of the PSA will be uploaded to the popular You
Tube broadcast Web site for viewing at www.youtube.com/profile?user=turninatagger.
Since
the “Targeting Area Graffiti” initiative was
launched in March 2006, calls to the Southern Nevada
Graffiti Coalition hotline have increased by 30 percent
to more than 300 a month. More residents also are
participating in clean-up efforts. The county is
expected to buy 20,000 gallons of paint this year,
double the amount in 2005. Nevada Power also is
including information about local anti-graffiti efforts
in December power bills that will reach about 780,000
customers.
“We
have been working on this problem for many years,
beginning in 1996 when we put together the Southern
Nevada Graffiti Coalition,” Commissioner Williams
said. “The key to our success in fighting graffiti is
working together to attack the problem on several
fronts. We have support from the police, the courts and
the community at large, and we’re definitely making
inroads in cleaning up our graffiti problem.”
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