Initiatives aimed at getting local youths involved in cleaning up graffiti is combining with a new vandalism tracking system to help Redland City Council fight vandalism across the city.
Redland City Mayor Karen Williams said the new VandalTrak system would provide a faster, easier method for residents to notify Council of graffiti in the Redlands.
“Redland City Council will be the first in Queensland to use the new VandalTrak system, which allows residents to use a smart phone app to report graffiti,” she said.
“This new system supports Council’s fight against vandalism which costs the local community more than $100,000 a year and $200 million nationally.”
Cr Williams said the new VandalTrak system was being used by local social enterprise groups to report graffiti.
“Council works with local groups such as the Redland Youth Justice Services, the Cage Youth Foundation and Boystown to report and clean up graffiti throughout the Redlands,” she said.
“As well as providing a fast response to reports of graffiti, these initiatives also provide an opportunity to involve local youths in the fight against vandalism, including at risk youths, as well as youths who themselves have vandalised property.
“The combination of the new VandalTrak system and the relationships with these community organisations is proving very successful, resulting in Redland City Council processing more than 300 graffiti incidents in the past six weeks.”
Council environmental spokesperson and Division 9 Councillor Paul Gleeson said the new system was great news for the community.
“Last year alone there were 453 incidents of vandalism reported in the Redlands. This is more than one report per day of somebody defacing, tagging or otherwise vandalising part our city,” he said.
“In order to respond to this quantity of graffiti we need the community’s help. The VandalTrak system will make it easier for people to notify Council of graffiti and make it easier and faster for Council to respond so we clean the graffiti.
“The community and Council are sick and tired of graffiti in our city. In the past I have taken up the fight myself and gone out to paint over graffiti in the community.
“The goal is to show graffiti vandals their unwanted tag will always have a short shelf life in the Redlands.
“Examples from cities across the world have shown that the sooner a tag is removed the less likely it is to reappear, so our relationships with social enterprises such as Boystown and The Cage mean the graffiti can be cleaned up quicker.”
Redland City Council is also interested in hearing from any community groups interested in being involved in the fight against graffiti in the area.
Redland City Council is also supporting Graffiti Census Day 15 September and is encouraging all residents to report graffiti on this day to help clean up vandalism throughout the community.
