Vandal Squad Finished!
Graffitti on a New York City wall.
The NYPD is planning to disband the street anti-graffiti and vandalism unit credited with cleaning up the city after the crime-crazed 1980s, the Daily News has learned.
Under the plan, the anti-graffiti and vandalism unit would be merged with the Transit Bureau's vandals squad - a move cops and community leaders say could allow graffiti to return full force.
"Graffiti is like the broken-window syndrome: The more you have it, the more the neighborhood looks bad and property values go down," said a veteran at the unit, created by former Mayor Rudy Giuliani in 1994.
"Graffiti is already on the rise," the cop said. "If we're not there every day, it will spread like a virus."
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly discussed the proposal two weeks ago at a meeting with top police brass, including Chief of Transportation Michael Scagnelli, who oversees the Transit Bureau, and Assistant Chief Charles Kammerdener, commanding officer of the NYPD's Special Operation Division, which encompasses the anti-graffiti unit, sources told The News.
Yesterday, police brass downplayed the sitdown.
"The department routinely evaluates how to attack quality-of-life issues that include the anti-graffiti unit and the vandals squad," said Inspector Michael Coan, a police spokesman.
He declined any further comment on the potential merge.
A source said, however, that the NYPD's Office of Management, Analysis and Planning is looking into the proposed fusion. The office's responsibilities include proposing organizational changes to maximize the Police Department's effectiveness.
The graffiti cops are worried that if they fold into the vandals squad, they will spend more time chasing crooks who steal copper wires from subway stations than nabbing the hoodlums who deface city buildings and its underground.
Subway cars have been mostly graffiti-proof since 1989, when the MTA officially declared graffiti dead in the system, though it still exists in tunnels.
Tags have mostly moved from the train yards to city streets, and in some neighborhoods they are making a comeback.
"We clear it, but they do it again. Not once or twice, but a dozen times," said George Francis, pointing at the tags scrawled on the outer walls of his Crosby Ave. liquor store, in the Bronx's Pelham Bay.
"This year, there has been much more graffiti around here than I've ever seen," added Michelle Tamas, who owns a photography store next to Francis'.
www.graphotism.com
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