Only two days into the job as Burnaby's top cop, Chief Supt. Dave Critchley learned a little something about what works in the city.
Critchley was attending a Burnaby RCMP press conference extolling the successes of the local anti-graffiti campaign.
Critchley said he's travelled the world for both work and pleasure and he was amazed at how little graffiti there is in the city.
"During my house hunting, it struck me as small the amount of graffiti there is in the city," said Critchley, who took over the top job from Rick Taylor on Aug. 2. "I'm excited to see that people identified an issue, put a plan in place and now it's working. . This is an example of people going after an issue and succeeding. It's fantastic."
Critchley's comments come on the heels of the Burnaby RCMP announcing Tuesday the recent arrests of five people involved in graffiti offences in the city.
graffiti offences in the city. During a four-day blitz between July 20 and 23, the Burnaby RCMP partnered with Canadian National Railway Police and the Coquitlam RCMP to arrest three adults and one young offender.
adults and one young offender. The adults are facing criminal charges relating to damaging property, while the young offender has been referred to the restorative justice program.
That incident took place on the underside of the overpasses on Government Street near Halston Court.
In another incident, the Burnaby RCMP arrested a woman near the Metropolis at Metrotown shopping centre for a graffiti-related offence.
"The broken window theory applies here," said Const. Shelby Murphy, the Burnaby RCMP's anti-graffiti coordinator. "Studies show that more crime occurs in areas which are allowed to remain in a state of disrepair, and when an area is cleaned up, people take more pride in their community. I encourage
citizens to band together and take back their community by removing graffiti as soon as it appears and to report all occurrences to police. When graffiti is removed immediately, it is less likely to reoccur."
When Burnaby instituted a new graffiti bylaw in September 2007, it issued hundreds of bylaw notices to businesses or homeowners instructing them to get graffiti removed. In addition, the city responded to hundreds of service calls to remove graffiti from traffic signal control boxes, signs, fences, bus shelters and lamp standards.
The city also works in partnership with public utilities and service companies to remove graffiti on SkyTrain, Telus and Canada Post property.
The City of Burnaby and the Burnaby RCMP began a joint anti-graffiti task force in 2009. Since the formation of this task force, there has been an 80 per cent decrease in graffiti vandalism.
The City of Burnaby's anti-graffiti coordinator, Kathy Wipf, works alongside Murphy, and the two take a multipronged approach to eradicating graffiti. Another aspect of Wipf's work is to raise awareness, both within the city and the Lower Mainland region, of what has worked and what needs to be done in the future.
For the future, Wipf hopes to continue spreading the word about the positive effects of eradicating graffiti. She said the city still has a lot of work to do, especially along main transportation corridors.
"There are stretches along Lougheed Highway and North Road and Still Creek, west of Gilmore, that need attention," said Wipf. "We've also got some problems on Hastings and Boundary Road. . There's still work to be done."
And for Critchley, that means he can turn his attention to other matters.
"It appears our (anti-graffiti) plan is working," he said. "I need some time to sit in the chair to see what else we have to do."
