Dear Editor:
Graffiti: any unauthorized inscription, writing, lettering,
word, drawing, figure, marking, painting, or design that is marked,
written, etched, scratched, drawn, painted, or otherwise placed on
any real or personal property (Gilroy City Code Sec. 12.5.3.).
Dear Editor:
Graffiti: any unauthorized inscription, writing, lettering, word, drawing, figure, marking, painting, or design that is marked, written, etched, scratched, drawn, painted, or otherwise placed on any real or personal property (Gilroy City Code Sec. 12.5.3.).
If an offender is caught by police officers – and they are, for example, tagging “ARTS” – they will be responsible and charged with all “ARTS” tags in Gilroy. Last year the Gilroy Police Department made 162 arrests for graffiti charges. For the last four years graffiti arrests have been cut in half every year.
Right now, the bridge at Farrell Avenue and Church are the worst areas for graffiti. The areas change all the time. I always thought that the places tagged most were also high crime areas. But Sgt. Kurt Svardal of the told me that is not always the case. He said there is a lot of graffiti in many of the new developments that are being built in Gilroy.
Gilroy is very fortunate to have a grant from the Department of Justice just for graffiti clean up and programs supporting it. The program has a hotline for civilians to call 24 hours a day to report graffiti. The number for that hotline is (408) 846-0395. Also the city employs a part-time Community Service Officer who goes out during the day and looks for graffiti. When he sees some he takes a picture of it and logs it in. They latter use that information when they go to clean up graffiti. The city has a goal to paint over all graffiti within 24 hours of it being put there.
Stephanie Smith, Gilroy High student,
Submitted Sunday, Nov. 3
