NYPD Ramps Up Efforts To Combat Graffiti

NEW YORK CITY - The NYPD is ramping up community policing efforts to stop graffiti with a city-wide spring "Graffiti Clean-Up" campaign.

The campaign will encourage residents to share information about locations that need a clean up with officers from all 77 precincts in the city. Officers and community members will take that information and clean up areas of concern.

The NYPD has created a new email address, graffiti@nypd.org, that will be monitored by police and will allow residents to send photos of graffiti and sites that need cleaning up.

Officers will send that information to the appropriate precincts, where commanders will oversee clean up and education efforts in collaboration with community members.

The campaign will also encourage discussion of preventative measures, such as installing motion-sensor lights or sprinklers to discourage vandals.

The information that is sent in from residents will be ranked – hate graffiti, or graffiti that uses offensive slogans or symbols, will be prioritized for clean up. Graffiti that is done by gangs or crews to mark territory or send warnings to rival will also be prioritized, the NYPD said.

"City residents, as well as our men and women officers, know well the perils of this costly and often obscene vandalism that can mar a neighborhood, create the perception of disorder and lead to further quality of life and crime problems," Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said in a prepared statement.

The NYPD said it received more than 6,000 complaints about graffiti in 2020. Cleaning up graffiti can cause a substantial financial burden on homeowners and business owners who need to clean it up.

Police said anyone caught defacing property will be arrested.