Tips for Graffiti Prevention

These tips can be applied to both residential and commercial property.

The following is re-printed in part with permission from Keep America Beautiful’s Graffiti Hurts website: www.graffitihurts.org

Graffiti contributes to a decline in property value, increase citizen fear and potentially reduce retail sales for your business. A business littered with graffiti is less likely to be patronized as citizens feel less safe and secure entering a storefront where graffiti is present.

How can you prevent graffiti?

  1. Ongoing upkeep

    2. Make every effort to keep the appearance of your property clean and neat.1 According to the Los Angeles Police Department, an exterior appearance that suggests apathy and neglect attracts vandals. Littered parking lots, graffiti, broken fences, overgrown landscaping, and poor lighting all send a message to vandals that business owners are not attentive or do not car about the business.2

  2. Rapid Removal

    3. Rapid removal of graffiti is the best way for property owners to protect their neighbourhood's image and preserve a sense of security. Report graffiti to the police, take a picture of the graffiti and then remove it quickly.

  3. Control access
    • Incorporate shrubs and vines to restrict access to a potential graffiti target wall.
    • Add or improve lighting around the building to promote natural surveillance.
    • Wherever possible use fences, controlled entrance and exits, rails, and other barriers that discourage through traffic.
    • Limit access to roofs by moving dumpsters away from walls and cover drainpipes and ladders to prevent vandals from scaling them.
  4. Step up security
    • Install some type of security camera.
    • Organize a block watch in your neighbourhood.
    • Employ graffiti resistant materials or coatings on a chronically hit wall or considerhiring an artist to paint a mural.
  5. Work with the community

    Organize a Community Paint-Out. Contact your localc Community Policing centre, Community Centre,Bbusiness Improvement Association or school and see how they can help

  6. Protect Your Walls With Anti-Graffiti Coating

    7. Commercial products are available that make cleaning graffiti easier. Protecting your building now could save time down the road if your building is ever the target of graffiti vandalism. For more information, contact your local paint store or visit our Commercial Graffiti Solutions page.

    1 Cornelius Ashton and Jordan Mirakian, "Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design: The Linda Vista Continuing Education Center," Campus Law EnforcementJournal Voume: 31 Issue: 4 July/August 2001, pp.19, 21-22.

    2 Los Angeles Police Department, "Los Angeles Police Department Commercial Burglary Prevention Circular," 2001.