Fontana is Washing Away Graffiti
 |
Every year, over 2 million square-feet of graffiti is painted over, sand blasted or chemically removed from Fontana businesses, schools, parks and even homes by the Fontana Graffiti Removal Team.
The Fontana Graffiti Removal Team is a City program created to combat the blight of graffiti.
“Graffiti is a major problem for all cities and agencies no matter how much graffiti there is,” said Parks and Landscape Supervisor Doug Smethurst. “Graffiti is a destruction of both private & public properties. The City gives the highest priority to the removal of graffiti.”
In order to keep Fontana clean the Graffiti Removal Team works 7 days a week to remove graffiti. The team focuses on high visibility areas of the City.
|
This includes major streets such as Sierra and Citrus, all the parks in
the City, the Freeway and areas surrounding schools, according to
Smethurst.
The fight to keep Fontana clean of graffiti is not always successful though.
“The most difficult aspect of my job is trying to stop taggers from
re-tagging areas that have just been cleaned,” said Crew Chief Ray
Martinez.
The hardest areas to keep free of graffiti are parks.
“The crew will clean off the graffiti throughout the park and [the park] gets
tagged right back,” said Smethurst.
To help stop repeat
vandalism, and to prevent graffiti in the future, the Graffiti Removal
Team has developed several tactics. One of which is to remove graffiti
soon after it is put up. Another tactic is to use law enforcement and
technology.
With the help of sting operations through the Fontana
Police Department, there has been a reduction in repeat tagging,
according to Smethurst.
The Graffiti Removal Team also uses a
program called Graffiti Tracker that “…takes photos of graffiti and
inputs it into a law enforcement data base,” according to Smethurst.
“Using this database, the Police Department is able to target areas
where a high volume of tagging occurs.”
The Police stings and
graffiti tracking do more than reduce graffiti, they also lead to
arrests of taggers and recouping the cost of vandalism through court
ordered restitutions, according to Smethurst.
Over all, the members of the Graffiti Removal Team feel they are helping to make Fontana a better city.
“I
was surprised how much the residents of Fontana really appreciate the
graffiti removal service,” Martinez said. “On the Graffiti Hotline,
residents will leave messages thanking the Graffiti Crew for removing
the graffiti … it makes you feel good [to know] that we can provide a
service that really makes a difference.”
To report Graffiti
please call (909) 350-GONE (4663) or fill out the Graffiti Form. For more information about the
Graffiti Removal Program and other functions of Fontana’s Public Works
department, please call (909) 350-6760 or visit www.fontana.org
|
|
|