Police plan to blitz graffiti (From Watford Observer)

Police plan to blitz graffiti

5:17pm Sunday 24th February 2008 in News

Youth up-to-no-good are being targeted by anti-social behaviour teams in a bid to clean up a village blighted by graffiti.

In the latest bid to wipe-out graffiti in Kings Langley, a Dacorum Borough Council van circulated the village this week, armed with the graffiti team to blitz the area and rid the village of the so-called art'.

The action has been taken after the council's Anti-Social Behaviour Team carried out recent work in the area, where they have been identifying the suspected graffiti artists and working out Acceptable Behaviour Contracts.

These contracts have been drawn-up to include the condition: "I will not have in my possession anything with which I can cause graffiti".

Particular hot-spots for graffiti are the post office, utility boxes, lamp posts, bus stops and road signs.

Malcolm Horne, who works in the Kings Langley sorting office, in Hempstead Road, said: "We have had some graffiti on our shutters.

"It's nice that it's all being cleared up."

The blitz, which involved the Police Community Support Officer for Kings Langley accompanying the council's graffiti team, is aiming to improve the appearance of the village and help reduce residents' fear of crime.

As graffiti is found, it is either cleaned on the spot or noted for future cleaning and all the graffiti found has been photographed and included in a database that will be used to track trends.