Teen faces 176 graffiti charges
CBC News
Posted: Aug 25, 2011 5:07 PM MT
Last Updated: Aug 25, 2011 5:07 PM MT
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A 19-year-old man has been charged with 176 counts of mischief in connection with graffiti throughout Edmonton, city police said Thursday.
Const. Gerald Jorgenson, co-ordinator of the Edmonton Police Service’s anti-graffiti efforts, said he only knows of one other case where more charges were laid, in York Region near Toronto.
“For us, for the Edmonton Police Service, this is definitely our highest,” Jorgenson said Thursday.
About 100 Edmonton police officers took a one-day course last year on how to increase the number of vandalism arrests in the city, including for graffiti. CBC “Our investigation is ongoing, and so he may be facing additional charges in the future. I know that the RCMP Strathcona County are currently doing an investigation there, so charges are pending in relation to some graffiti vandalism that was done out in their jurisdiction as well.”
The charges stem from an anti-graffiti effort launched three years ago by the city. Authorities try to track vandals by taking pictures of their graffiti tags and logging them.
Last year, a city survey of graffiti tags recorded 1,978 of them in 20 Edmonton neighbourhoods most affected by graffiti vandalism. The count found that 10 taggers accounted for nearly half the graffiti in those neighbourhoods, which included the downtown, Strathcona, Boyle Street and Central McDougall.
About 75 per cent of the graffiti was on private property.
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