New high-tech answer in the Government's fight against graffiti

30/11/05
The Gallop Government today unveiled a new high-tech weapon in the fight against vandalism with a graffiti-reporting website now available across Western Australia.
Launching the Goodbye Graffiti website today, Community Safety Minister Michelle Roberts said the online technology would provide a single point of contact for people to report graffiti on public assets at any time.
Mrs Roberts also announced an additional $200,000 for grants to assist local governments combat graffiti.
The launch of the new website service follows a successful three-month trial of the website in the Town of Vincent, where residents and businesses reported more than 500 acts of graffiti on council assets.
"Graffiti is an ugly crime which costs Western Australians more than $25million a year to repair and can be particularly destructive on a personal and social level," the Minister said.
"It is clear we need as many weapons in the fight against graffiti as possible, such as the Internet, which is a swift and easy reporting mechanism available 24/7."
Mrs Roberts said the State Government had invested more than $2million to combat graffiti over the last 18 months, which included $275,000 in grants for local governments to purchase cleaning equipment, graffiti trailers to clean up graffiti.
"We are committed to making our communities safer and protecting our unique lifestyle, and this targeted campaign against graffiti has resulted in a significant drop in recent police statistics - a 53 per cent decrease or 1,600 fewer acts of graffiti across the State, compared with the same period last year," she said.
"The new graffiti-reporting website will aid in catching offenders, because State and local government agencies will be informed immediately a report is lodged.
"Our target of removing graffiti within 48 hours is critical to removing the recognition factor for offenders, so it is vital that graffiti is reported promptly. This new website will enable everyone to play their part swiftly."
Government agencies currently participating in the new Goodbye Graffiti project include Main Roads and Western Power, and more than 40 local governments.
Mrs Roberts said graffiti vandalism of private property should continue to be reported to police on 131 444.
The Minister said additional $200,000 in grants was part of the Designing Safer Communities (Graffiti) program to boost local governments' ability to collect information on graffiti and offenders and share it with police.
Grants of up to $10,000 were available for local governments to foster the uptake of technology including hand-held computers (PDAs).
"The hand-held cameras are used by staff to monitor and record graffiti in the field, allowing councils to track the activity of groups or individuals more efficiently and forecast where further attacks may occur," Mrs Roberts said.
"The Repay WA program, which uses low risk offenders on community work orders, is also proving very successful as they remove graffiti as part of their sentence."
The Minister said the Gallop Government was planning to introduce new laws to give local government the power to remove graffiti from private property.
This follows on from increased penalties for graffiti vandalism offences which came into effect earlier this year under the Simple Offences Act. The changes include:

• allowing the courts to order offenders to refund costs to any person who had removed or arranged for the graffiti to be removed;
• any person found in possession of spray cans or other objects, with an intent of using it to cause damage/graffiti, could be liable up to a fine of $6,000.