Vandalism – What Can Be Done
Richard Cobb just blogged about how vandalism is becoming a more pressing problem within Huntington due to the lack of enforcement. The article identifies alleys as being particularly ripe targets for taggers due to ideal conditions for concealment of the illicit behavior; poor lighting, little traffic, and poor visibility from within the homes/businesses along the alley. The question then is what can we, as citizens do, to help cut down on vandalism?
- Install lights on your garage or outbuilding that lies along an alley way. By lighting the area you will automatically make that alley less inviting to a passing vandal.
- Remove Graffiti as soon as you can. By removing it the vandal will grow discouraged that their work keeps getting removed. Sure, at first, they might hit again out of frustration but eventually they will realize you won’t back down (and you shouldn’t!)
- If you see vandalism occurring – report it to the police! If you remain silent when the crime is occurring how can you complain about it happening? We need to work together with law enforcement to reduce the crimes in our communities!
Those steps alone will make a huge impact. If you are the neighbor to someone who gets vandalized encourage them to clean it up and offte to help them. If they won’t and you can then just do it yourself otherwise you’re just inviting the vandals to return and the next time they will probably be on your property.
If you’d like more information on why fixing vandalism quickly can help prevent future vandalism you should check out the book “Fixing Broken Windows: Restoring Order And Reducing Crime In Our Communities
Finally, we could come together as a community and provide a better opportunity and outlet for the people who want to create grafitti. Perhaps we could organize a mural project along the floodwall downtown.