Rise of daredevil tagging takes costs to new heights
THE rise of daredevil tagging in Auckland is costing the city’s ratepayers and building owners dearly.
‘‘The idea for them is they want to put their tag somewhere it’s not going to be removed, so people can see it for a long period of time,’’ said Andy Flint, business development manager at Civic, the company contracted by Auckland Council to clean tagging from the city’s CBD.
But costs are rising as taggers have been climbing to heights in a bid to have more of the city’s citizens view their tags.
‘‘In previous years, there might have been 100 to remove at height. This year, because they are getting a bit more daring, there might be 300,’’ Flint said. ‘‘They know if they do it on a reachable wall, it will get removed quickly.’’
Auckland Council said it had spent about $4.2 million in each of the past five years removing between 70,000 and 110,000 pieces of graffiti each year.
Civic’s share of that was about 35,000 last year, and the number looks certain to be higher this year.
‘‘Every single job that’s above a certain height becomes a height risk, and your staff have to be height trained,’’ he said.
‘‘It’s a much longer process,’’ he said, and a more costly one. ‘‘The health and safety protocols are very stringent.’’
Buildings tagged with at-height graffiti include some in high-use streets including Auckland’s Queen Street.
The council pays for some graffiti removal, but clean-up costs for commercial properties often fall to the building owner, Flint said.
Auckland Council said its last graffiti plan seemed to show it had been winning in the fight to reduce tagging. From 2012 to 2019 there was a decrease in the amount of tagging being removed, but
Flint said daredevil tagging was changing the economics of graffiti removal.
‘‘We’re not really making any money on the [Auckland Council] contract because we’ve had to employ more staff that we expected to cope with the growing amount of tags in the city.’’
A 2009 Ministry of Youth Development study found taggers got a thrill from doing something illegal, but 20-somethings were more likely to tag than teens.
There are some tags that appear again, and again, and on August 9, a 29-year-old man was arrested, accused of being behind the prolific ‘‘Blume’’ graffiti tag seen around Auckland.
‘‘We remove multiple tags from Blume on a regular basis,’’ Flint said.
It’s alleged that Blume tags have caused around $250,000 of damage to buildings. ‘‘It’s not like Banksy doing some cool graffiti art. It’s just vandalism at the end of the day,’’ Flint said.