Casey Grammar students Megan, Megan, Centaine, Devon and Michael with, centre, Graffiti Awareness Education Program actor Scott Gooding.CASEY CEO Mike Tyler has sung the praises of the city’s proactive graffiti management plan.
According to Mr Tyler, 2007 resulted in significant progress in council’s ongoing challenge of tackling graffiti vandalism, with local schools embracing the preventative education program, the introduction of state-wide legislation, as well as successful prosecutions for individuals charged in Casey.
Mr Tyler said the success of the graffiti management program would not be possible without the strong support of the Victoria Police, Casey schools and the community.
“Working in partnership, the City of Casey has been able to effectively tackle graffiti and reduce the amount of scrawl on public and private properties,” Mr Tyler said.
Schools in Casey have overwhelmingly supported the graffiti awareness education program delivered by council’s contractor, Warner Group, with 97 per cent of local schools taking part.
“The performance-based education program, delivered by professional actors/facilitators and targeted towards Year 5 and 8 students, informs them of the consequences of illegal tagging for the community, their families and themselves.
“Students are encouraged to think about the effects of graffiti vandalism and related antisocial behaviour and to identify alternative avenues for self expression,” Mr Tyler said.
“I would like to congratulate Casey’s schools for adopting this important grass roots program, which in the past 12 months has reached more than 9000 students.
“I’m pleased to report that following the program a number of schools have reported decreases of graffiti and other forms of vandalism within their grounds,” he said.
Mr Tyler also pointed to the fines of up to $21,000 recently imposed on offenders, with the money going towards cleaning up the costs of graffiti vandalism, due to the work of the Casey Regional Response Unit (CRU), based at Narre Warren Police Station.
Acting Inspector Alan Dew of Casey Police said: “In the past 12 months there have been hefty penalties imposed on offenders, including one where a 20-year-old male received a six-month suspended jail sentence and was ordered to pay $21,000 in restitution.
“This shows the courts are taking this community issue seriously and not tolerating vandalism in Neighbourhoods,” Acting Insp Dew said.
“The CRU has worked closely with council officers during the last year to apprehend graffiti vandals.
“Police have adopted a zero tolerance approach to graffiti vandalism and have dedicated a crew of investigators and a full time criminal analyst to monitor trends and high-risk sites.
“As a result, some 30 offenders have been charged with in excess of $160,000 damage. Offenders should be mindful that a conviction for criminal damage by graffiti can have major consequences in later life in terms of employment and travel restrictions,” he said.
The City of Casey operates a Graffiti reporting hotline and encourages our community to report graffiti to this free 24-hour hotline number: 1800 VANDAL (1800 826 325).
