I have worked on graffiti issues for the past three years. As I have seen
in previous postings, many people are aware that the city's efforts have had
many structural impediments and problems. I am a member of the Mayor's
Graffiti Task Force, member of the Seward Neighborhood Group board, and a
member of Seward's community oriented policing task force.
Sgt. Duncan 673-5722 has been assigned as the city wide graffiti
coordinator for the MPD. He works out of the 5th precinct. The graffiti
hotline 673-2090 is now the police dept. and calls to the hotline become
police reports with case numbers that can be tracked. The city web site at
www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us is the most efficient way to report graffiti
vandalism.--- go to what's new and select graffiti from the drop down menu.
Anyone can report any location-redundancy is not a problem. We need to report
it.
Effective strategies include education, eradication, and enforcement.
Sgt.Duncan is talented and energetic with the skills to make the enforcement
piece work. A lot more work needs to be done but there is now a structure in
place where crimes are being documented, arrests are being made, and evidence
is being gathered, and cases are being sent for prosecution.
Neighborhoods need to be actively involved with the police dept. with
collective problem solving about graffiti. This should occur in many places
and many forms but there is now a structure for this as well. There are three
work teams that will work on enforcement, removal and education. For these
teams to work we need a critical mass of six more people. Right now these are
daytime meetings because of the govt. employees who attend. If we can
identify people who would go to evening meetings we can change some or all of
the meetings.
The city council has a huge role in making this work.In my estimation the
city council dropped the ball during this recent budget process. Although
graffiti is considered a very serious problem in many neighborhoods and city
wide it has not galvinized in a way to get alot of people at council meetings
to insist that the city have a coherent removal strategy. Some graffiti in my
neighborhood has been up for two years. And the tag SHIT written in one foot
letters has been on the Dick Blick building for nine months.
We also need to work with judges and restorative justice with juveniles.
There is also research that demonstrates that the amount of graffiti in a
city has an effect on many other crimes.
We have four bureaucracies who need an ordinance change and some additional
funds and a clear strategy of who is doing what.
There will be some large meetings planned this year, maybe by precinct. But
it isn't meetings, it's what happens afterward that really matters. We have
many of the pieces of the puzzle now, but we need community folks to get the
connections.
The next meeting of the enforcement work team is Feb. 7th. at 1:00 to 2:00 at
the 5th precinct community room. Topics:Prosecution,enforcement,and ordinance
The next meeting of the removal and education work teams will be at the
Graffiti Task Force meeting Feb.22 at 2:00 city hall 333. Scott Vreeland
[EMAIL PROTECTED] in the Seward Neighborhood - thanks for reading my
long winded meeting announcement
