Tag Cloud
Friday, February 10, 2012
Ask Officer Michelle - Graffiti in Midtown
by Michelle Lazark, published on August 8, 2010 at 9:08 AM
Storyline: Ask Officer Michelle
Posted by chriso
What is up with the drastic rise in graffiti?? I went out on my bike today and hadn’t been out for about 4 months and i see tons of new graffiti around downtown. I saw about 1-2 ft high black lettering on a NICE HOUSE around 15th & V…it made my heart sick, It makes me think that it is only a matter of time before my house gets hit, our alley (V,W) is already getting plenty of new graffiti. It is such a shame and makes our city look so trashy. What can I do??
Dear chriso,
I spoke with the Sacramento City Senior Code Enforcement Officer who is the supervisor of the graffiti abatement section and forwarded your complaint. He told me that graffiti problems are definitely troublesome to our city. I also referred your complaint to our commander who oversees the downtown area. Additionally, the Sacramento Police Department meets with the District Attorney’s Office as well as the Sacramento City Code Enforcement Department on a regular basis.
You should always report these crimes with the police department because City Code Enforcement keeps a database of all the taggers. Officers frequently run across subjects in their homes that have indicia with their “tag” in their residences. If these subjects already have cases based upon crime reports and entries in the database, it can assist the District Attorney in prosecuting a case.
As far as things you can do, landscaping, cameras, motion detectors, dogs, and Neighborhood Watch are still your best bet. If you do witness a vandal in progress, you can call 911. Be able to describe the suspect from head to toe including their age, race, height, weight, what they are wearing, if there is a vehicle involved, etc. The dispatchers will be able to voice your description over the air for officers in the area. If officers don’t respond right away, it is not because officers or the Police Department doesn’t care. We do care. Everyone is affected by these types of crimes. It’s is just that there are simply higher priorities that we are responding to such as crimes against persons. Thank you for bringing this to my attention.
Officer Michelle
Conversation Express your views,
debate, and be heard with those in your area closest
to the issue.
Leave a Comment
Yes, graffiti is a nuisance, but not half the nuisance of a busy signal one may get calling 911 for immediate life saving help?????
Imagine! We could form a group of midtown bounty hunters and split the reward!
The most you can do about it is set up legal graffiti walls and have more respect for the artists.. Sacramento is the only city in California that tries to declare a "ban" on graffiti.. Look at New York.. They tried everything in their power to stop it. Did it stop? No. People die over gang related graffiti and the community decides to leave that up longer then an individual artists piece. If graffiti was legal for at least a year you would drive down the road and see a piece of art that reaches out to you and make you think 'Wow I couldn't do that even if I tried". Graffiti is a word used to describe a genre of art.. Not vandalism..
http://matadornetwork.com/trips/10-places-where-graffiti-is-legal