Why do major cities allow taggers to ruin property and destroy the look of the city?

Question

I have noticed the increased amount of tagging in major cities around the U.S.

(Tagging is territorial mark usually made by gang bangers. They have their own symbolism used by that gang. No all taggers are a part of gangs, lots of time they are teen agers with too much time on their hands.)

I was in a really nice area today in Houston, and I noticed a lot of tagging around the Montrose area. These marks were everywhere, on concrete, wooden fences, walls etc... A perfectly nice looking area was defaced by some young adult or teen ager with no respect for other hard working property owners.

I noticed a lot of traffic cameras in the area and I wondered, why don't they ever catch these people who are destroying property in so many cities and neighborhoods? My favorite coffee shop was tagged. I went to Los Angeles recently after not being their for over 10 years. I was shocked at the amount of tagging which filtered into the areas you wouldn't expect. LA use to be so nice!

Answer 1

Tagging has been a problem for many years now.  The battle between police officers and the taggers lie mainly with the fact that we can't be everywhere at once.  If officers were able to predict when a crime would occur, imagine how much better our world would be.  Taggers generally operate at night, and rely on the shadows and areas that get minimal patrol.  News media in I'm sure your area has stated at least once that there is always a shortage of man power in your respective law enforcement agencies.  Officers are tasked to be reactive and pro-active in the same shift.  Sadly though, officers are more reactive, thus responding to their calls more than patrolling the dark alleys.  Don't get me wrong, I've spent many hours on patrol myself, and have caught many criminals in the act, but there are just times that you have to take your calls and go home.  

Cameras have been very helpful in catching many criminals in many different types of crimes, but it's not full proof.  

I would assume that the only way that tagging will stop, is once the gang violence stops.  We can hope, but not sure it's ever going to happen in our lifetime.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

It is because they  don"t care, unless and individual stops them. Then they go after the individual because it is easier. Sometimes it takes guts to do a job too bad most don't have them.

Answer 3

In my city, we started a number of programs (undercover officers, tagger cams etc) to reduce the number of taggers. Lots of arrests, tagging went down in the short term.

The PD costs went up (OT etc), but as the average fine was less than $100 with zero of it going to the PD, it was an effort we couldn't sustain.

Also the taggers knew that they weren't facing any real penalty, there was little incentive for them to stop.

Just another example of the criminal justice working in favor of the criminal.

Answer 4

Tagging or graffiti has been going on as long as there have been people. Man drew on cave walls before he lived in permanent structures. Ancient Rome has examples as do the pyramids. Maybe it is something in our DNA. Or like I was told as a child "fools names like their faces, are often seen in public places". That being said, it's really to bad that the fines are not much steeper for the jerks that do it.

Answer 5

They do it at night.. Cover of darkness.. People aren't everywhere at once.. Police do what they can, but "taggers" are not of the main importance...

Answer 6

because city budgets are getting smaller as commodities rise, plus there is no extra deniro coming from the feds to help with the  inflation . I live in a small city & tagging is rampant. I love it (not) when I hear people defend it as art, HA !more like litter. the only decent grafitti I ever see is online, & sometimes on a train car. either way the majority is defacing someones private property.