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311 West Pioneer Puyallup, WA 98371 Puyallup Police Department Thank you to our Community Part- ners who are helping us keep our City clean! Friends of the Riverwalk Rails to Trails Coalition Puyallup Schools’ Special Services Work Crew Friends and Servants, Mel Korum YMCA Tacoma Wheelmen’s Club PPD’s Volunteers in Police Service Puyallup Streets, Parks and Facilities Departments Home Depot Lowes Hardware Ace Hardware Parker Paints REPORT GRAFFITI Please print! Your Name: Phone Number: Please answer the following questions: Exact address/location of graffiti: Description of graffiti—words/picture: What materials were used (spray paint, markers, etc); Type of property affected (street sign, building, overpass, etc): Email to: [EMAIL REDACTED] Or mail to: Puyallup Police Department 311 W. Pioneer Puyallup, WA 98371 G.E.T. It OFF THE WALL Graffiti Eradication Team Puyallup Police Department 311 W. Pioneer, Puyallup, WA 98371 [PHONE REDACTED] www.PuyallupPolice.org Photos courtesy of bluerainimages.com ---PAGE BREAK--- WHAT TO DO IF YOUR PROPERTY IS HIT BY GRAFFITI? Report the graffiti to the Graffiti Eradication Team (GET) using the form on this brochure. Drop it off in person or mail to the Puyallup Po- lice Department, send an email to [EMAIL REDACTED] or visit the Department’s website at www.PuyallupPolice.org By covering or removing graffiti as soon as possible, you rob the van- dal of the effort and time it took to do the tag and most likely they will move on. You can prevent your property from becoming a “known tag site” by removing graffiti im- mediately. It is recommended that you cover the tag or graf- fiti with a square of paint. Or use special products to scrub or wash it away. Many home improvement stores have numerous products to assist in this. The Graffiti Eradication Team is available to assist property owners to remove the tag from most surfaces. In many cases, the Team members will be proactively approaching owners to alert them to the tagging and offer to assist in removing it. However, the assistance is limited and with the intent of covering or removing the graffiti only. More custom removal will require the property owner to address it. Everyone can help! HOW CAN I GET INVOLVED? The Graffiti Eradication Team is a strictly volunteer organization and they are always looking for help. You can adopt an area or public site to routinely clean it off when it appears in your area. This is especially effective as neighbors are the first to see the graffiti and are the most impacted by it. You can volunteer as individuals, as a family, as a neighborhood effort or as a larger organized group. It is a great way to meet new people, get involved in the community while also cleaning up our City. OR you can donate supplies to be used in removing this blemish from our community. For a complete list of needs, please contact the GETeam. HOW CAN I TELL IF MY CHILD IS INVOLVED IN DOING GRAFFITI? Watch for the following: A collection of black or permanent markers Collection of spray paint cans and nozzles Heavily tagged property, including furniture and room walls Graffiti sketch books—where ideas are kept Spray paint residue on fingers and clothes, particularly after regular dawn or dusk outings with friends Keep our City a great place to Live, Work and Play—report graffiti right away! WHAT IS GRAFFITI? It is vandalism and that is a CRIME! It is costly and destructive and sends a message that the community is not concerned about its appearance of its neighborhoods. It generates neighborhood fear, causes insecurity, signals an increase in crime, lowers property values, hurts business revenue, is economically detrimental to the City, and is a sign of urban decay. It is a result of individual acts of vandalism per- petrated by people seeking attention. It can be found in the form of paintings, ink drawings and lettering which deface walls, fences, buildings and other structures. Graffiti annually costs taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars in clean up efforts, both in materials and time. WHAT THE LAW SAYS— City of Puyallup has adopted the International Property Maintenance Code which reads: 302.9 Defacement of property. No person shall willfully or wantonly damage, mutilate or deface any exterior surface of any structure or building on any private or public property by placing thereon any marking, carving or graffiti.