WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah – Authorities in Utah’s second-biggest city say they are struggling to address a newer kind of graffiti.
West Valley City police are citing a rise in so-called slap tags. The tags involve coloring postage labels or another kind of sticker, then sticking them on buildings and signs around town. The marks show up at bus stops, inside the state-run light rail cars. Some of the tags have bold lettering and while others simply have images.
Creators of the stamps draw up designs ahead of time, limiting their risk of getting caught. Trading tags with friends in other cities allows them to raise their profile.
“They can just walk up to a street sign, stick it up and keep walking,” West Valley City police Detective Mike Lynes said. “If you have a friend in New York, he can send you a pack of stickers. You can send him yours.”
And the canvas is free because priority shipping labels are available in 24-hour post office lobbies across the country.
Unlike traditional graffiti, however, it can’t be covered up with a swift paint job. West Valley City has hired an employee charged solely with scraping off the stickers from public buildings and signs.
The tags have multiplied in the urban center 10 miles from Salt Lake City because teens and young adults from more rural neighborhoods come seeking a city environment.
Nationally, it’s nothing new. Police in New York, Los Angeles and other major cities have struggled to cut down on it for decades, Lynes said. Authorities in neighboring Arizona in recent years reported a rise in slap tags.
In West Valley, at the request of business owners and others who say the stickers plagued their property, police are paying more attention to social media to catch suspects. On Instagram and Twitter, taggers often appear with pictures of their work, their faces covered. But they sometimes have other identifying factors, like a tattoo on the forearm or a gauge in their ear.
Such details have helped the department identify and arrest more suspects in recent months, Lynes said.
Salt Lake City Police Det. Dennis McGowan said the department hasn’t noticed a rise in the stickers but hasn’t tracked them recently, either. They appear in greater numbers in warmer months, he said.
Trent Call, a Salt Lake City artist, said he remembers seeing an uptick in the stickers about 15 years ago but hasn’t noticed one in Salt Lake City recently.
“It could be like a new crop of kids, like a new generation getting into it,” he said.
“It’s just one of those things that everyone goes through when they’re younger, like skateboarding and punk rock music, you know?”
