City complains of good Samaritan painting over graffiti
Desert Hot Springs City Councilmember Russell Betts said over the past eight years, great strides have been made to clean up the city’s streets through the Graffiti Abatement Program.
“The graffiti tech will be there within 24 hours.
That’s what we guarantee,” he told KESQ News Channel 3’s and CBS Local 2’s Katie Widner. It is something residents agree has worked.
“I have noticed that there seems to be a lot less than there used to be. It used to be you drive anywhere and you could see the gang tags,” resident Adam Zimmer said.
However, recently a good Samaritan has been taking matters into their own hands, using brown paint to cover up areas vandalized by graffiti.
Had interesting convo w/ @DHSPoliceDept about why you should leave graffiti cleanup to professionals. More on @KESQ pic.twitter.com/Jj4m7CUwIP
— Katie Widner CBSL2 (@KWidnerCBSL2) August 8, 2017
“Obviously, this individual doing it has good intentions; however, the graffiti abatement program is set up to match the paint that’s already out there,” said Deputy Chief Jim Henson, of the Desert Hot Springs Police Department.
The citizen’s clean-up requires a clean-up of its own.
“I understand people are anxious about it. Maybe because there’s so little graffiti that they’re on the hunt for it, but it really costs us more to cover that over,” Betts said.
Some residents said they do not see the harm.
“If it’s getting taken care of, well, that’s the important part. Trying to make the town look a little more decent,” Maydelin Espinosa said.
The cover-up also hinders another less-obvious purpose the program serves; documenting what graffiti was found and where, which sometimes can help police track it back to an individual.
“There are times where we make an arrest and we’ll find graffiti on a person and by using this program that we have, we can go back and see those monikers that have happened in the past,” Henson said.
Hensen said taggers could face misdemeanor, or even felony, vandalism charges depending on the damage.
Check out Desert Hot Springs Graffiti Hotline Online or call (888) 562-3822. More: Today’s Top Stories
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