| 21 June 2010
Press Releases
| Operation Graffiti: Côte-des-Neiges—Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough adopts new enforcement measure of invoicing offenders | ||
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Montréal, June 21, 2010 – Susan Clarke, Loyola district councillor and responsible for the graffiti file in the borough of Côte-des-Neiges—Notre-Dame-de-Grâce (CDN—NDG), along with Commandant Daniel Leduc and Sergent Pascal Gosselin of the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM), officially announced that the borough has adopted a process that, under a municipal bylaw, will allow graffiti vandals to be invoiced for the cleanup costs of removing their graffiti. “Over the past few years, the borough and its partner, Prévention NDG, have been working very hard. In 2009, over 19,000 square metres of graffiti were removed and 11 artistic murals were created. We're also doing prevention in the schools in our territory. Today, we decided to add an additional preventive measure to improve the quality of life of CDN—NDG residents. The invoicing process we have established will help us reduce the costs of graffiti removal, which is about $700,000 a year for the borough right now,” Clarke explained. “With this tool at our disposal, we'll be able to raise awareness among the public and among graffiti vandals to reduce and prevent criminal infractions.” “Cooperation between the CDN—NDG borough, the SPVM and residents will put this new measure to good use. We are encouraging residents to report offenders by calling 9-1-1 directly and to report graffiti on Ville de Montréal property by calling 3-1-1,” Leduc said. To make the measure even more effective, the SPVM keeps a registry that lists all graffiti-related infractions and can link a graffiti vandal to several tags or graffiti. The registry can be used to tally up the cleaning costs and combine them in a single invoice in the offender's name. Recently the SPVM arrested four graffiti vandals. They will be receiving their invoices soon. Susan Clarke also took the opportunity to announce a $25,000 increase in the budget for Prévention NDG, raising its total annual grant for removing graffiti from private property and raising awareness among the borough's youth to $125,000. An awareness campaign will also be rolled out by the borough at the beginning of the next school year to prevent damage to buildings and urban furniture. In the meantime, the borough will step up efforts to establish a long-term partnership with major institutions that deal with graffiti vandals and stores that sell graffiti supplies. - 30 - |


















