Tasmania Police

Crime Prevention & Community Safety Council

Graffiti

Introduction

Graffiti vandalism is a crime with significant social and financial costs for the community.

It is commonly understood that graffiti offenders, typically youth and young adults, mark graffiti for reasons such as a means to display their ‘art’, claiming space in a community, the adrenalin rush, gaining notoriety amongst their peers, a means of self expression and to cause damage. Graffiti offenders may operate individually or as part of a group.

It is also commonly understood that the presence of graffiti in a community will attract further graffiti, contributes to a fear of crime, gives the impression of social decline and that the property owner does not care about their property.

The effective management of graffiti in your community may benefit from a partnership between various stakeholders and include a number of strategies targeting graffiti prevention, graffiti removal and education. Click here to provide feedback on the Information Sheets.

Tasmania Police Graffiti Strategies

Current strategies used by Tasmania Police to address the issue of graffiti include:

Investigation of offences and prosecution of offenders: Tasmania Police officers investigate, build intelligence, and divert and prosecute offenders for graffiti offences. Tasmania Police is also seeking amendments to the Police Offences Act 1935 that include banning the sale of aerosol paint to people under 18 years of age, prescribing graffiti as a specific offence, making it an offence to possess a graffiti implement without lawful excuse and providing police with the ability to search a person (on reasonable grounds) for graffiti equipment.
Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED): Officers from Tasmania Police have been trained in Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design and are available to provide advice to councils, businesses and the community on strategies that can be used to design out crime, including graffiti.
Community Respect Order Program: The Program is an early intervention diversionary option for youth and young adults, based on a restorative justice approach, whereby the offender performs reparation work in the community under the supervision of Tasmania Police. The Program focuses on offenders who have committed damage to property offences such as graffiti and reparation work includes painting over graffiti.
Graffiti Task Force: The Crime Prevention & Community Safety Council and Tasmania Police developed an Operation Plan for distribution to Tasmania Police to implement. The Mission of the Operation Plan is to reduce the existence of graffiti in a designated local government area by implementing a rapid removal approach of graffiti management and establishing a ‘clean community’ for the implementation of long-term graffiti management strategies. The Plan includes 5 Phases:

Phase 1: identify graffiti within a target area
Phase 2: contact all property owners to seek permission concerning the removal of graffiti from their property
Phase 3. graffiti removal
Phase 4: monitor, respond and investigate all incidences of graffiti within removal area
Phase 5: assessment of Task Force outcomes.

Publications

Graffiti Information Sheets:

Links

Crime Prevention Organisations

Local Government

General

Service Tasmania | Tasmania Online

This page - http://www.police.tas.gov.au/community/cp_and_csc/cp_and_csc_graffiti - was last published on 12th March 2009 by the Department of Police and Emergency Management. Questions concerning its content can be sent by email to tasmania.police@police.tas.gov.au or by mail to GPO Box 308, Hobart, TAS, Australia 7001.

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