About 2,236 square feet of space in Emporia was damaged by graffiti in Emporia in a three-month period from March 31 to June 29. The cost of that graffiti is an estimated $5,631.
Brendy Allison, community service officer with the Emporia Police Department, said graffiti in Emporia picked up after spring break and has remained steady since that time. From April 7 to June 23, there were 81 incidents reported in Emporia.
Buildings, utility boxes, ticket boxes, mailboxes, park property and just about anything that can be painted on are targets in Emporia. Some of the graffiti is just standard; other is gang graffiti, Allison said.
“We’re getting it all over the place,” Allison said. “They’re not picking on any one part of town.”
Peter Pan Park gets hit consistently, Allison said. A memorial in the park that reads “in memory of the United Spanish War veterans” was photographed in April after it had been tagged. The William Allen White memorial in the park also has been tagged numerous times.
“It’s a typical summer,” said Gary Smith, chief of the Emporia Police Department. “They are pretty persistent. They like to do it over and over again.”
Smith said graffiti not only causes residents problems but it also gives the town a bad image.
“It’s unsightly,” he said. “It sends a nasty message to people who visit.”
Smith said most residents are respectful of their community — but not all.
“Just a handful of people are giving the rest of them a black eye and it’s not fair,” he said. “It reflects poorly on everyone.”
Not just an
Emporia problem
Lyon County structures get hit by graffiti too, most often right outside of town, said Gary Eichorn, Lyon County sheriff.
“Some of our bridges like the Turnpike bridge south of town gets hit quite a bit,” Eichorn said. “I know there’s one or two out east of town that historically get a lot of graffiti on them.”
Railroad switchboxes and crossing arms get hit, too, as well as a water pump building outside of town, Eichorn added.
“It’s generally just right outside of town,” Eichorn said. “About any bridge, concrete structure, somebody will tag something on it some time or another.”
Allison said the Olpe Lake recently was hit. The shelter houses — including the roofs — and tables were all hit. Allison said some of the kids in the county’s diversion program helped clean up the graffiti as a part of their community service requirement.
Cost and removal
A large problem with graffiti is cost. In a three-month period between March 31 and June 29 in Emporia, the estimated cost is $5,631 according to a program being used by the Emporia Police Department.
Removal of graffiti isn’t easy.
“Some we’re able to remove with sprays and graffiti removal,” Allison said. “But some have to be repainted.”
Allison said she often paints over graffiti with donated paint. She has to paint with what color is donated, however, so oftentimes, home and business owners are left footing the bill themselves.
Reflective signs cannot be simply painted over, however. The clean-up process destroys the sign’s reflectivity and the entire sign face has to be replaced, Smith said.
Graffiti costs residents financially as well, Smith said.
“When a merchant has to spend money (on cleanup) its going to be conveyed in their prices,” he said. “It’s an economic impact for the whole community.”
Tracking graffiti
The Emporia Police Department is using a new program that can track graffiti and group graffiti by taggers.
“It can match up what tagger did what,” Allison said. “Because we do have multiple taggers out there.”
The department has a camera that communicates with a satellite. When a picture is taken it records the location and time. This is then transmitted to the company that hosts the software for categorization.
With the program, if a tagger is caught, the graffiti can be matched with other graffiti the tagger may have done and all the incidents can be prosecuted at once.
“Right now it’s tabulating for each tagger,” Allison said.
How you can help
If anyone has any information regarding graffiti in Emporia and Lyon County, contact Lyon County Crime Stoppers at 342-2273, the Emporia Police Department at 343-4200 or, if outside the county, the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office, 342-5545.
oh4theluvof (anonymous) says...
"Smith said most residents are respectful of their community — but not all."
Part of the problem underlying this whole thing is the definition of "respect." Gangs are marking their territories, making them gang property. From their perspective, when we remove the tags, we are disrespecting them. At what point did they lose or not get the concept of other people? At what point did they decide they could claim anything? There seems to be some breakdown in communication about recognizing when something isn't yours and what precisely respecting other people's property is.
July 8, 2010 at 5:17 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
neighbor (anonymous) says...
No, they are vandalizing property they don't own using paint they stole, they are too stupid to own territory.
July 8, 2010 at 6:01 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
methusla (anonymous) says...
neighbor,
Your are right, as is oh4theluvof . However the gang members that do this are " tagging " things as a warning to others that this item belongs to them or this is their particular territory or " turf " .
Those who have no gang affiliation are doing this, just to be destructive and will not do it to what they actually own.
July 8, 2010 at 8:54 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
justaflushaway (anonymous) says...
hey smith, its summer time, some of us old farts who have lived here forever would be glad to but on the old OD green hanging in the closet since we were in Uncle Sams military, would probably love to catch these little punks and drag their sorry asses to you cop shop, Oh by the way, smith what are the hours that you are open now??
But, I would like to know that the punks that are collected for you would actually get slapped around a day or two instead of you saying that you or the sorry ass goodman would have to let them go because the were treated wrong when they were young, hey such as life!
July 8, 2010 at 10:11 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
bloomsbury (SC DIXON) says...
Why, there otta be a law!
(There is?)
Ho-hum, well, just add it to the list of the laws we have but don't enforce...and in the unlikely case of someone actually being caught, why we can tell 'em that we're real mad and that they shouldn't otta do it...and shake our fingers in their faces and look real upset.
Seems to be our catch-all solution.
July 9, 2010 at 3:44 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
REWBA (anonymous) says...
You don't have to wear OD Green to catch punks. Just implant tracking devices in the handles of cool looking spray handles and plant them at the various target sites. The taggers will pick them up and carry them home giving law enforcement the GPS coordinate to where they lay their heads. http://makezine.com/images/tools/spra...
July 9, 2010 at 6:22 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
justaflushaway (anonymous) says...
REWBA, its a old tired or retired GI military thing, guess you don't understand, oh well, it would still be fun, and what the heck, gotta get up at midnight to pee anyway, might as well go catch some punks, would not be able to sleep anyway, just another, you probably would not understand
July 9, 2010 at 6:42 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )