The writing’s on the wall: Graffiti arrests jumped in 2008.
Cops made 10% more busts for tagging and other graffiti crimes last year than in 2007 – a jump to 4,120 arrests from 3,743.
Arrests increased even though New Yorkers made 9% fewer calls to 311 and 911 to report graffiti, cops said.
Edwin Young, assistant chief of the Citywide Vandals Task Force, said the unit has become increasingly efficient since it was centralized four years ago.
He said his 80-member unit diligently follows up with callers and has made rewards easier to collect.
The department has handed out $500,000 in reward money since 2004, he said.
“We made the process . . . proactive,” said Young, who has been with the NYPD for 40 years. “And the process to get the money was simplified.”
Even though graffiti-related calls dropped last year, so-called “graffiti complaints” have skyrocketed nearly 152% since 2004.
“Graffiti complaints” include reports filed by cops – not just outraged citizens – about individual incidents.
Citywide, those complaints increased 10% in 2008 over 2007.
“I want complaints of graffiti,” said Young. “There is no such thing as a bad number.”
In southern Manhattan, arrests were up 38% in 2008, to 853 from 647; they ticked up just 1.5% in northern Manhattan, to 321 arrests from 316.
In the 28th Precinct, which covers parts of central Harlem, there were 20 calls to 311 and 911 about graffiti last year, up from nine in 2007. Though it’s a small sample, Franc Perry, chairman of Community Board 10 in Harlem, said the neighborhood sees the difference.
He offered as an example the back wall of an elementary school that used to be riddled with scrawling.
“It’s been clean for the last two years,” he said. “For years, every surface in the neighborhood was ripe for ‘graffiti artists’ to display their work.”
It’s only been running since Saturday, but someone has already painted graffiti inside one of the Valley’s light rail trains.