With graffiti problem on the rise, Ogden City offers cash rewards for tips
Dec 20, 2021, 6:04 PM | Updated: Dec 29, 2022, 11:51 am
FILE PHOTO: Ogden police responded to a stabbing at the Lantern House Homeless Shelter on Thursday. A suspect is in custody. (KSL TV
OGDEN, Utah — The Ogden City police department is trying to get a handle on what they call a rising graffiti problem in the city.
It’s become a bigger problem over the last few years, according to Ogden police.
“We keep track of graffiti-related cases and graffiti reported throughout the city,” said Lt. Will Farr with the Ogden City Police Department.
“Between 2020 and 2021, we had an increase of 118% in graffiti reports.”
Lt. Farr says authorities initially thought the increase was a fluke because of the COVID-19 year (2020) and because everyone was inside.
However, Lt. Farr did some further investigation into the graffiti problem.
He said between 2019 and 2021, the city saw a 34% increase in graffiti cases. Then, in 2021 alone, the city saw a 24% increase in cases from the first half of the year to the second.
Cash reward to help with graffiti problem
To help solve the problem, Ogden City is now prepared to offer cash rewards for information that leads to arrests in vandalism cases. The city will offer $500 for information related to graffiti cases throughout the city.
Specifically, the city will also offer $1,000 for information related to vandalism cases in the historic part of the city.
Lt. Farr says the graffiti cases range from someone trying to write something funny to something more elaborate. Either way, it’s a problem that needs to be stopped.
“But all of it has to do with defacing property in Ogden,” Lt. Farr said.
He said cleaning up graffiti isn’t as easy as it seems, especially with historic buildings.
“You can’t just clean off paint,” he said. “A lot of times what ends up having to happen on most places outside of historic buildings, is you actually have to just paint over it.”
And that process is both time and cost intensive, Lt. Farr said.
Since Dec. 1, the city has spent $3,500 in removing graffiti, both in manpower and materials.
Lt. Farr encourages anyone in the community who sees something suspicious to contact Ogden City Police.
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