1 December 2011

Graffiti police to hit the Civic and Braddon streets

| johnboy
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civic graf

Word reaches us that Canberra CBD Limited is planning to commission security patrols to deter graffiti in their target area of Civic and Braddon.

They had this to say on the subject:

Nothing specific as yet. We are currently finalising the locations but can confirm that Braddon will be a particular target. We have the support of building owners, managers and tenants in Lonsdale and Mort Streets.

Apparently Leader Security will be providing dog patrols.

A good idea? Or something ACT Policing should be doing?

Workexpboy went out at lunchtime to get a feel for the scope of the problem, he returned complaining that most of the tagging was old and faded, but got some good shots.

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The Traineediplomat said :

Wasn’t it one of them thar Scandinavian countries that introduced Photo ID / 18+ requirements for spray paint? They also had a register of a unique barcode/identifying number of each can so that if a spraycan turned up on site of a graffiti tagging etc, they would turn up to the house of the ‘owner’ of the can with a Please Explain letter. Especially if the owner had people of “a higher propensity to tag age” in the house.

Of course wouldn’t work for magic markers and the like, but an interesting concept.

+1 Excellent idea.

The Traineediplomat11:06 pm 02 Dec 11

Wasn’t it one of them thar Scandinavian countries that introduced Photo ID / 18+ requirements for spray paint? They also had a register of a unique barcode/identifying number of each can so that if a spraycan turned up on site of a graffiti tagging etc, they would turn up to the house of the ‘owner’ of the can with a Please Explain letter. Especially if the owner had people of “a higher propensity to tag age” in the house.

Of course wouldn’t work for magic markers and the like, but an interesting concept.

TheDancingDjinn said :

I know if the young run from a secuity guard or authority figure, they are guilty or know who the guilty party is

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-news/supreme-court-rules-person-is-entitled-to-do-runner-if-not-under-arrest/story-fn7x8me2-1226205792608

@TheDancingDjinn

I was going to respond in length, but i’ll summarise my points

– you need reasonable suspicion to detain someone. running isn’t.
– you can’t detain someone, then interview them so see if you have reasonable suspicion
– lol, i’m sure “i aint dun nuffin” works 100% of the time and guards let kids go on that
– Security i’ve met can’t string a sentence together
– I like the idea of catching the taggers, but i can see this going south really quickly.

TheDancingDjinn said :

I had a bit of a misspent youth – i got into some michief. I know if the young run from a secuity guard or authority figure, they are guilty or know who the guilty party is. Also, most guards have logic too you know, its a shame most people imagine them as some huge thugs with no common sence. I am pretty sure if they get the wrong kid and he says dude it wasnt me.. some might have the brains to get to the bottom of things before resorting to holding someone? Or are you implying people who work in security able to do that ? Before complaining about civil liberties being denied the privilaged children of canberra, let them see how it works out first.

I’m trying pretty hard not to make assumptions about security guards. Some good friends of mine have or do perform that task, and I respect the difficulties of it.

But I still get pretty cautious when I see suggestions that anyone bar the police go ’round laying hands on people. Hell, if I was a security guard in these circumstances, I would really hope i didn’t get bashed by some little punk, and at the same time worried that I would get sued…

TheDancingDjinn2:30 pm 02 Dec 11

Henry82 said :

buzz819 said :

Of course using the reasonable amount of force when making the arrest.

I think most people know that a security guard can hypothetically detain someone, assuming they have “reasonable grounds”. However I wonder if a “guard” dog can actually be used as “reasonable force” against someone. My guess is they are just a deterrent/self defence and can’t actually be “released” onto someone evading capture (particularly on public property). I don’t intend on finding out, but it would be interesting to see the legalities of it.

buzz819 said :

What’s the difference between this and security firms in construction sites, bouncers at night clubs, at shopping centres, hotels, work places etc?.

Most parts of civic and braddon are public areas, and a thoroughfare for people walking home. You choose to walk into night clubs and shopping centres, where the streets are public property. It won’t be long until we have ill-trained and unaccountable security guards doing police work.

Myles Peterson said :

Hope the first kid to get assaulted/falsely imprisoned sues the pants off Canberra CBD.

completely agree

TheDancingDjinn said :

But to complain about security and then to go on and refer to the kid destroying property as a poor victim who will be held against their will?

he said falsely imprisoned for a reason, a kid who is caught destroying property can be detained with reasonable force.

I had a bit of a misspent youth – i got into some michief. I know if the young run from a secuity guard or authority figure, they are guilty or know who the guilty party is. Also, most guards have logic too you know, its a shame most people imagine them as some huge thugs with no common sence. I am pretty sure if they get the wrong kid and he says dude it wasnt me.. some might have the brains to get to the bottom of things before resorting to holding someone? Or are you implying people who work in security able to do that ? Before complaining about civil liberties being denied the privilaged children of canberra, let them see how it works out first.

buzz819 said :

Of course using the reasonable amount of force when making the arrest.

I think most people know that a security guard can hypothetically detain someone, assuming they have “reasonable grounds”. However I wonder if a “guard” dog can actually be used as “reasonable force” against someone. My guess is they are just a deterrent/self defence and can’t actually be “released” onto someone evading capture (particularly on public property). I don’t intend on finding out, but it would be interesting to see the legalities of it.

buzz819 said :

What’s the difference between this and security firms in construction sites, bouncers at night clubs, at shopping centres, hotels, work places etc?.

Most parts of civic and braddon are public areas, and a thoroughfare for people walking home. You choose to walk into night clubs and shopping centres, where the streets are public property. It won’t be long until we have ill-trained and unaccountable security guards doing police work.

Myles Peterson said :

Hope the first kid to get assaulted/falsely imprisoned sues the pants off Canberra CBD.

completely agree

TheDancingDjinn said :

But to complain about security and then to go on and refer to the kid destroying property as a poor victim who will be held against their will?

he said falsely imprisoned for a reason, a kid who is caught destroying property can be detained with reasonable force.

buzz819 said :

(1) A person who is not a police officer may, without warrant, arrest
another person if he or she believes on reasonable grounds that the
other person is committing or has just committed an offence.

….

Of course using the reasonable amount of force when making the arrest.

This whole concept is pretty vague and dubious. If I am spray painting a wall, and do a runner from a security guard, pretty much anything he does to stop me is going to involve a fair amount of physical interaction (because I am sprinting).

I would say that such a level of force would be inappropriate when compared to the nature of the crime, which would mean the security guard had committed an offence. At which point I could arrest him yes?

I am totally against people tagging $hit, but I am also not very happy with hired gorillas being told to go out and grab kids. Police get a pretty sold training course followed by on the job work. How long does it take to be a security guard?

Tagging is the rape of the urban environment.

Postalgeek said :

I think the real question is does the time taken for a part of a graffiti artist to pass through the digestive tract of a security dog count as detention; if so, do private security firms have the right to detain that part of the graffiti artist; and is that period of detention taken into account during sentencing?

At least they’d come out a better person at the other end.

Myles Peterson said :

Don’t like this at all.

Privatised law enforcement to patrol privatised civic … Just another reason to shop online.

Hope the first kid to get assaulted/falsely imprisoned sues the pants off Canberra CBD.

What’s the difference between this and security firms in construction sites, bouncers at night clubs, at shopping centres, hotels, work places etc?

There are a lot of ways that a graffiti problem can be removed, paints that are graffiti proof, the right type of paint colour that people don’t like to graffiti, appropriate lighting and rapid removal (this would be the most effective type of prevention, but would cost more to start off with).

What powers do they have to arrest someone?

Section 218 Crimes Act 1900;
218 Power of arrest without warrant by other persons
(1) A person who is not a police officer may, without warrant, arrest
another person if he or she believes on reasonable grounds that the
other person is committing or has just committed an offence.
(2) A person who arrests another person under subsection (1) shall, as
soon as practicable after the arrest, arrange for the other person, and
any property found on the other person, to be delivered into the
custody of a police officer.

Of course using the reasonable amount of force when making the arrest.

I think the real question is does the time taken for a part of a graffiti artist to pass through the digestive tract of a security dog count as detention; if so, do private security firms have the right to detain that part of the graffiti artist; and is that period of detention taken into account during sentencing?

TheDancingDjinn11:42 am 02 Dec 11

Myles Peterson said :

Don’t like this at all.

Privatised law enforcement to patrol privatised civic … Just another reason to shop online.

Hope the first kid to get assaulted/falsely imprisoned sues the pants off Canberra CBD.

But i bet you’d be the first to complain about not having security there when one of them little turds wants your iphone. We cannot expect police to do everything – they are not superhuman, sometimes other things are important. But to complain about security and then to go on and refer to the kid destroying property as a poor victim who will be held against their will? – don’t spary paint other peoples shit and your chances of getting injured by a huge tongan security guard drops drastically. If i caught one of my kids spray painting anything i’d superglue their hands together.

milkman said :

Tagging is not art. It’s pure bogan d***headerry.

+1

Sadly, until they make the penalties much more severe the problem will remain. Give ’em 6 months of supervised graffiti cleanup at their own expense for the first offence and things might change.

Myles Peterson10:17 am 02 Dec 11

Don’t like this at all.

Privatised law enforcement to patrol privatised civic … Just another reason to shop online.

Hope the first kid to get assaulted/falsely imprisoned sues the pants off Canberra CBD.

Tagging is not art. It’s pure bogan d***headerry.

These Graffiti-artist claim that they are ARTISTS..

And yet I saw an art (albeit it is just a penguin, with LGB as the background) on a traffic light circuit (a cyan box near the traffic light) spray painted over with a graffiti.

If they have no respect for other artists then what are they??

ATTENTION WHORES?

DUB said :

There was a report on that topic last night, WIN local news.
They are going to use guards with dogs, apparently, they did a little trial, and made over 100 arrests.
I think it’s a good idea, let police instead to concentrate on more serious offences and crimes.
Tagging looks ugly, I don’t mind a bit of really well done picture graffiti, Woden storm water drains (the ones that run behind the Woden Police station ) have a few good ones.But majority-rubbish.

+1 – Tagging is a nuisance and desecrates a lot of our public spaces, hopefully one of the guards ‘accidentally’ loses control of his German shepherd and the dog has a a chew on one of the taggers heads.

devils_advocate3:33 pm 01 Dec 11

p1 said :

Do guards and dogs have the legal ability to detain you for graffiti something?

Or the physical ability? If you can’t outrun a mall cop time to have a long hard look at yourself.

from the photos, it looks like the taggers have it out for DEEWR heh

Do guards and dogs have the legal ability to detain you for graffiti something?

The tall tag that I think says “style” is around Dickson too. Actually, now that I think about it, I reckon there’s more ugly tagging and random graffiti around Dickson than Braddon.

Hopefully the trial is a success and private security can be utilised this way in other areas. As long as they’re more like “Springshield” rather than Homer’s neighbourhood watch vigilante gang, it could be a useful community service.

DUB said :

and made over 100 arrests.

jesus! how many taggers are there?

I always assumed it would be very difficult to catch taggers, particularly since its a thoroughfare. Although, they don’t seem too intelligent to begin with, perhaps you just ask them and they admit it.

“Are you a tagger?” “yes.. oh sh.. i mean no”

There was a report on that topic last night, WIN local news.
They are going to use guards with dogs, apparently, they did a little trial, and made over 100 arrests.
I think it’s a good idea, let police instead to concentrate on more serious offences and crimes.
Tagging looks ugly, I don’t mind a bit of really well done picture graffiti, Woden storm water drains (the ones that run behind the Woden Police station ) have a few good ones.But majority-rubbish.

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