Just when the Gilroy Police Department was making significant
inroads toward controlling Gilroy’s growing graffiti problem, the
heart and soul of the anti-graffiti program has been scheduled to
be laid off in a recent round of budget cuts.
Gilroy
Just when the Gilroy Police Department was making significant inroads toward controlling Gilroy’s growing graffiti problem, the heart and soul of the anti-graffiti program has been scheduled to be laid off in a recent round of budget cuts.
Community Service Officer Angela Locke-Paddon and Nicole Nielsen, office assistant for the Neighborhood Resource Unit, along with a group of graffiti “Wipe-Out” volunteers were Gilroy’s front against the unsightly scrawls. But after this month, the two women’s part-time duties will be handed off to one of the department’s community service officers.
Police have made 74 graffiti related arrests this year, compared to last year’s 38. Of those arrests, about 80 percent are juveniles, according to police data.
“We have never seen arrest numbers like this,” Locke-Paddon said. “It had a lot to do with the sheer volume we’ve had but also with me being really persistent. The more arrests we make, the more restitution for victims and the city. But when the city falls on hard economic times, the graffiti program is the first to go.”
Under Locke-Paddon, the program evolved from being a reactive effort to combat existing graffiti into a proactive investigative endeavor to prevent future vandalism. While the graffiti problem was put on the back burner in the past, Locke-Paddon worked to bring the city’s most prevalent crime to the forefront.
Though Locke-Paddon’s departure was a “pleasant parting,” she said she’ll be sad to leave the department after 17 years of service. She has also held positions in the records department, as a multi-service officer and as a crime scene investigator.
“I dumped my heart and soul into that program,” she said. “I’m very proud of it and our accomplishments. I don’t want our city to look like it did in the past. I don’t want to see it take 10 steps backward.”
“Angela and her passion for graffiti removal will be missed,” said Sgt. Jim Gillio, public information officer.
Her duties will fall on another full-time officer with an already busy plate, he said, “but we’ll do our best with the resources we have.”
Though she did not know who would be filling her shoes, Locke-Paddon said the volunteer program will remain essential to the aesthetic upkeep of Gilroy.
“The volunteers are still very important,” she said. “They’re such awesome people that just give and give and give. I’ll be one of them now.”
