Banksy’s home city starts dedicated graffiti unit

The home town of artist Banksy will be the first city in the country to get a police team dedicated to dealing with graffitists.

‘Taggers’ are being watched by undercover officers in Bristol, where many communities have been blighted by spray paint and marker pens for years. Among those under suspicion include university students, bank workers, and private school pupils.

Police say that because officials have allowed the spray paintings of Banksy to remain on buildings around the city, the wrong message is being sent.

They also say that despite spray can vandals going to court in recent months, none have been jailed – this despite the fact that some of the taggers are responsible for hundreds of offence.

According to a story in Bristol’s Evening Post one of the most prolific to appear in court was Daniel Tyndale, 21, who was given a five-year Asbo, a 12-month prison sentence suspended for two years and 300 hours of unpaid work in the community.

The paper said he admitted tagging 350 buildings, including a police station, the listed Bristol University psychology building and the Polish Church in Cheltenham Road.

He had a number of tags, including “dotcom”, “norm” and “planet” and targeted public car parks as well as private homes and vehicles, and even tagged a law firm outside the Crown Court. He alone was responsible for £1 million of damage, police estimated.

PC Ali Ross, who heads up the undercover graffiti team, told the Evening Post: “This is a serious culture these guys are into. It’s about getting their names across as much property as possible. It’s about getting respect for their name around the world.

“They will spend a lot of time perfecting their style and the fact that Banksy’s work is being allowed to remain on buildings around Bristol is causing us a few problems.”

Work by Bristol’s elusive graffiti artist is on show at the Cut the Mustard Gallery in St Nicholas Market, with some signed prints selling for up to £5,000.

Police can only prosecute a tagger if someone reports their property has been vandalised.

PC Ross said: “In general, people don`t like taggers. They are giving graffiti and graffiti artists a bad name.

“Taggers are doing it for respect. They use spray cans, leather dye, shoe dye, marker pens and acid pens.

“They are always coming up with new ideas for how their tags cannot be removed from walls.

“A tagger looks for a ‘plot’ that can be seen by as many people as possible – which is why we are seeing a lot of tags up high on buildings. Many taggers have admitted to us that they are addicted to it. It’s an addictive culture that they are involved in. When you speak to them, most will say it’s very hard for them to stop tagging buildings.”

PC Ross also told the paper: “Avon and Somerset police is the first force in the country, outside the British Transport Police, to have a dedicated graffiti unit. That’s how much of problem it is in the city. If the unit was to grow we’d obviously have more resources to catch more people.”