Lexington, KY - City officials, members of the Lexington Police Department and community organizers met Monday to discuss the recent success of a task force targeting graffiti vandalism, which saw the arrest of 10 individuals in April.
"By working together, we have taken important steps forward," Mayor Jim Gray said at a press conference in Woodland Park. "We all know that graffiti is a problem that we will never completely solve, but it's something that we don't need to ignore either. Citizens have been given a responsibility and entrusted our local government to take care of their property."
Since the task force was initiated in 2004, over $32,000 in damage to private and city property has been identified, according to Officer Ricky Lynn, who has been involved with the task force. Lynn said that some of those individuals arrested had agreed to community service to lower the charges, and that over 200 pieces of graffiti were painted over throughout the community last week.
Lynn acknowledged that while the task force has made progress, completely thwarting instances of graffiti was difficult to envision. "Graffiti is going to be a problem for the city for probably as long as the city is here," he said.
Eradicating graffiti, especially in the Woodland Park area, has been an ongoing commitment for Lisa Johnson, an active member of the Aylesford Neighborhood Association and a member of the Parks and the city's Division Recreation Advisory Board; the department has one full-time employee dedicated to removing graffiti. Johnson was instrumental in making sure the city took graffiti seriously and in inspiring neighbors to be vigilant in watching for instances of graffiti. To show her thanks for their efforts, Johnson presented some officers involved in the graffiti task force with t-shirts. A logo of a bore wearing a police officer hat and the word "buffers" appears on the back of the shirts.
"In New York, the police that remove the graffiti and arrest the graffiti artists are called The Buffers," she said. "These are my buffers."
Johnson said that this sort of grass-roots involvement and advocacy, though time consuming, was necessary to help curb community problems like graffiti.
"A lot of people say, how do you have the time," Johnson said. "How do you not have the time if you live here?"