Council employs super sleuths to nab taggers
By NIC DALEY

Monday, 11 December 2006

PRIVATE investigators will be used to identify graffiti vandals across the city.

The Manukau City Council’s community safety committee voted last week to enlist the services of a private investigation company to apprehend taggers.

City councillor Dick Quax, chairman of the 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 decision follows a pilot programme earlier this year, a joint initiative between the council, the Manukau Beautification Trust, a private investigation company and police.

It 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.

Fellow committee member and Howick councillor Jami-Lee Ross also backs the initiative.

“It’s an issue the whole of Manukau City is dealing with, everywhere you go you see graffiti.”

He says while the beautification trust does a good job painting over the destruction, it doesn’t have the resources to enforce laws and catch vandals.

“The contract with the beautification trust is $800,000 to paint out the graffiti, and even then they can’t get all of it.”

Mr Quax agrees, adding a similar scheme has been running in Auckland city for some time and has helped them apprehend and prosecute nearly 500 taggers.

“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.”

The council will invest $100,000 annually in the initiative, with the rest of this year’s funds coming for existing budgets.