The city is stepping up its efforts to paint local graffiti vandals into a corner.
On Monday, council committee approved a request to partner with Crime Stoppers of Simcoe Dufferin Muskoka to offer rewards to help nab those using walls and surfaces for graffiti. The decision must be ratified at Thursday night’s council meeting.
Under the plan, the city will earmark $4,000 for reward money and to boost social media posts aimed at catching local graffiti artists.
“When we compare the graffiti incidents for the first six months of 2018 compared to the same period in 2017 and 2106, we are actually heading in the right direction in terms of graffiti incidents being reduced in the city,” said Shawn Crawford, the city’s manager of legislative services.
According to his report, there were 117 incidents in the first half of 2016, 108 during the same six months in 2017 and 91 to date this year.
“Staff believe we still should keep the pedal on the gas, so to speak, and continue to come up with ways to further reduce graffiti,” Crawford told city councillors. “One of those ways is to look at a partnership with Crime Stoppers as a way to help identify those committing acts of graffiti in the community.”
He said many other strategies have been employed in the past, including working closely with the city’s street crime unit and local schools.
“It has become evident that without the public’s help, it is difficult to identify graffiti vandals in the city,” said Crawford.
Under the new plan, the city and Crime Stoppers will each contribute 50 per cent towards a reward that leads to an arrest pertaining to graffiti. The reward would be $250; each party would contribute $125.
Crawford said city staff will also work with Crime Stoppers on a joint campaign that would be marketed and circulated on social media.
In addition to $2,500 for the rewards, $1,500 would be used for radio ads and boosted social media posts through the city’s Facebook page to promote the partnership and encourage people to report “known graffiti vandals.”
Coun. Mason Ainsworth said the initiative is “a good step in the right direction.”
He said he is disappointed by the “repeat attacks” on certain businesses and said more work has to be done on penalizing vandals. “That’s a bigger issue we need to work on,” he said.
The reward program is one component of a multi-pronged approach the city is taking to combat graffiti.
The municipality is also partnering with Georgian College faculty and students from the school’s Police Studies Degree program.
According to Crawford’s report, they “have demonstrated a keen interest in helping combat graffiti in the community. In the fall of 2018, there is a plan to have students of their degree program coordinate a digital graffiti awareness poster competition in each high school.”
He said the plan is to have the high school students create graffiti awareness posters that contain a slogan, with the winner of the contest (from each high school) having their poster displayed over social media applications utilized by the OPP, City of Orillia, Georgian College, and the Downtown Orillia Management Board, subject to approval from applicable parties.
“I think it’s an innovative approach that shows council stepped up (and) listened to the businesses,” said Coun. Sarah Valiquette-Thompson. “The Georgian College partnership is really cool and unique.”
