The Durango Police Department is reporting an uptick in graffiti throughout city limits and is looking at new ways to catch potential suspects.
“We have noticed an increase in graffiti,” said Cmdr. Jacob Dunlop. “We’re putting a lot of effort in trying to identify and apprehend the people causing the damage to property.”
Issues with graffiti tend to ebb and flow within city limits, Dunlop said, but once in a while, officer do report a notable increase.
Recently, officers have spotted more graffiti along the Animas River Trail, and on private property, in alleyways, on fences and on garages. Bridges, overpass structures, utility fixtures and trash cans are also common targets, Dunlop said.
“Our officers on shifts are doing their best to communicate when and where they’re seeing the graffiti,” he said.
Several factors may be behind the uptick in incidents, Dunlop said.
For one, people who tag with graffiti are part of a culture, feeding off each other’s work. Many times, people may not know who the tagger is, but are familiar with an individual’s work throughout town.
“It almost becomes a competition among people that are causing this damage,” Dunlop said.
Also, the increase in tagging may just be a result of warmer weather.
“People are getting out more at night,” Dunlop said. “I’m not surprised to see we are starting to see more visible graffiti and a higher frequency of it.”
It is, however, difficult for law enforcement to catch suspects.
“It unfortunately doesn’t happen as much as we’d like,” Dunlop said. “It’s a crime of opportunity.”
Commonly, people who do graffiti have signatures or tags, which officers can start to track when building a case.
Dunlop said penalties for tagging property can range widely, depending on the nature of the offense, and include restitution, community service, court costs and even potential jail time.
Habitual offenses or graffiti that is expensive to remove can elevate charges to felonies.
One aspect unique to Durango, Dunlop said, is when people graffiti historic structures. It then becomes a challenge for property owners to repair the damage, he said, because historic districts have strict regulations.
Dunlop could not provide the average number of arrests for graffiti in a typical year. But he said law enforcement is working on a new strategy to address the issue, which he said he was not able to disclose.
But, he said the focus will be on impact to victims.
Dunlop encourages anyone who has been a victim of property damage by graffiti to report it to dispatch or through the police department’s online portal.
jromeo@durangoherald.com
