Graffiti can be reported to city online

The city has launched a new online graffiti reporting tool, allowing people to photograph the graffiti, upload the address where it was found and report it to the city’s code enforcement officers.

Heather Trautman, director of the Office of Neighborhood Services and code enforcement, demonstrated the new application using a historical marker located just west of City Hall freshly tagged with graffiti.

“This makes for a one-stop shop for reporting graffiti,” Trautman said.

The application works from a smartphone, tablet or a desktop computer and is connected to the reporting person’s My Spokane account.

The process is simple: From a phone or computer, open a My Spokane account and click on “report graffiti.” Fill out the form, including the name and contact information of the person making the report, and the location of the graffiti, and complete the form by uploading a photo.

“It walks you through the process,” Trautman said, adding that the person making the report may choose to stay anonymous. “People can decide to do that if they feel reporting graffiti puts them at risk.”

The city has received more than 100 graffiti reports since the tool launched in July.

Removing graffiti remains the responsibility of the owner of the tagged property, but Trautman said the city is now helping by doing some of the cleanup for free.

“We have done 60 free abatements so far,” Trautman said.

Once a graffiti report has been filed, code enforcement officers will inspect it and contact the property owner. The goal is for code enforcement to resolve most of the graffiti cases within 30 days.

“We still take graffiti reports on paper forms,” Trautman said. “Forms can be picked up at the COPS Shops or downloaded from the website.”