Graffiti on the rise
Braden Quartermaine
Thursday, 15 July 2004



ESPERANCE Police are calling for the public to be extra vigilant in the fight against graffiti after a recent boom in the town centre which began last weekend – the start of the school holidays.

For the past week graffiti has appeared high up on a side wall of a real estate office on Dempster Street, clearly positioned to attract attention from people on the town's main thoroughfare.

Fresh graffiti has also appeared in car park areas between Dempster and Windich Streets, while the skate park near the town foreshore is constantly being vandalised.

Police say the work is being done by those who know what they are doing.

Senior Constable Dave Smith said any offenders caught would be prosecuted.

"It's professional tagging, it's not just someone writing their name," he said.

"I've contacted the graffiti team in Perth to see if I can get the tags entered in on the database.

"We just need people to be really vigilant, we really need to have a look and curb it as soon as possible.

"If it gets out of hand, it reflects on the community itself – it's nothing more than an eyesore."

Esperance Shire community services executive manager Rod Hilton said the Shire tried to clean up vandalism within 24 hours if it was on public property, but that graffiti on commercial premises was the businesses' responsibility to clean up.

But he said business owners were welcome to come to the Shire for advice about the best ways of dealing with the problem and cleaning up.

Urban arts programs instigated a couple of years ago more or less eliminated the problem but there was a cyclical factor involved as children grew older.

"Every three or four or five years you need to go back and reinitiate the programs," he said.

Mr Hilton said the Shire was currently concerned with the skate park, which appeared to be deteriorating fairly rapidly.

He said while the Shire cleaned up vandalism, its prevention was the police's responsibility.

"We don't want it to happen, but by and large it's a police matter," he said.

Sen. Const. Smith said the graffiti was particularly disappointing considering the options available to people in Esperance to use their creative flair in a positive manner.

"There's places around town where people have actually created graffiti walls – we don't need them coming into town and tagging," he said.

Sen. Const. Smith said the graffiti was probably the work of youths and that he hoped the perpetrators would be caught and dealt with.

"If I can help it there won't be any juvenile cautions issued," he said.