Faster, better…

(Editorial Opinion-  032809) xxxxxxBounty.com claims to be a site that permits graffiti victims to upload a bounty for taggers or graffiti vandals. A bounty is supposed to encourage people that know who the tagger is to act and turn in the tagger to xxxxxxBounty. This is odd, very unusual, and in my view not a very good idea. These were the things that crossed my mind when I looked over this website.

The likelihood that someone knows a tagger listed on this site then leaves their name to turn the tagger in for pennies is very remote. There’s no more incentive than one or two twenty dollar bills. I’m inclined to call it wishful thinking at best. In the meantime of course xxxxxxBounty is earning interest on the bounty funds.  Victims that are angry and fed up with vandalism might be tempted out of frustration to fund a bounty but they may never yield a result.

There is no process information anywhere on the site that offers any details or gives anyone what the probability might be that a vandal will ever be identified and prosecuted. There is no promise of anonymity either. Who in their right mind is going to act on a twenty-dollar bounty to identify a gang member’s graffiti?

Where is the profit in this business model? I have serious concerns about sending this company money. There is no company mailing address and there are no real names of corporate officers provided. All you can see are carefully crafted email contact addresses. I don’t get a warm and fuzzy feeling about sending money into an Internet black hole.

Most communities with a graffiti problem have well established methods for citizens to report vandalism. The most common place to start is with the local police! What good is it going to do to send an anonymous company a $20 bounty?

I’m not at all impressed with their FAQ’s. Question number two asks, “Are you against graffiti artists?” There is no such thing. By definition graffiti is a crime. This site also considers art (produced in collaboration with a property owner) graffiti. Talk about confused.

The site says the two most important things you can do if you see vandalism in progress is to call the police and then contribute to a bounty. Wrong.  First you call the police and next find out how and when the vandalism is going to be abated. The community may have an abatement volunteer group that a citizen can join. Cleaning the vandalism or working to insist that local officials and businesses abate the vandalism is far more important than enriching a private company inserting itself into the law enforcement process.

These people and their so-called bounty could significantly hamper or interfere with law enforcement efforts. Witnesses to crimes should be working with their local police and not through a third party. When police are not cooperative graffiti victims should be going to their city or county elected officials with complaints.  In most places, police will work to capture vandals. This is  especially true in the State of California where some of the site’s current pictures originate.  My experience in abatement issues has been with some of the more superior agencies like San Jose and Santa Rosa Police in California. There are many more enlightened agencies out there with dedicated graffiti cops. Police have informants, sophisticated computer systems and even the assistance of other police agencies on difficult cases. Police will find the bad guys in time as long as citizens trust them to. Citizens might even be able to put a bounty of their own at a local bank and establish a local committee to work with the police when deciding to award the bounty – if such a tactic is even necessary.

Most bounty’s are rewards for information GIVEN TO LAW ENFORCEMENT that result in the arrest and conviction of a criminal. There is a formal process for evaluating information and establishing whether or not it was significant. I don’t see any mention of how this website’s owners establish bounty eligibility or make payments. Do a little what-if analysis of your own and I’ll bet you decide not to send them a dime.

This company is apparently in favor of legal graffiti areas. Legal graffiti zones have never worked, and will never work. This company has no understanding of the vandalism subculture and is encouraging actions that will only serve their interests. They might succeed in perpetuating an income if people do send them money by encouraging free walls because free walls have always contributed to additional vandalism and tagging in the vicinity of the free walls regardless of the rules. After reading the site it is clear to me these folks are probably opportunists not fully aware of the anti-graffiti strategies that have worked for years.

Anyone seriously involved in graffiti enforcement and abatement will tell you that publishing the picture of a tag on the Internet is not a good idea. Vandals love to see their work up where people can see it and that includes the Internet. This site features tags. It’s probably the first [place a tagger would go to determine his/her own popularity. A bounty for their tag would actually contribute to more vandalism.

This approach is wrong on many levels and it does not appear that the owners, whomever they are, really understand the problem. It seems to me they see a money-making opportunity at the obvious expense of the angry graffiti victim. I believe the best course of action is to remain well away from xxxxxxBounty.com. I regret not providing the complete URL. It is my way of warning you away from a site that appears to a poor abatement option while also not providing the site with any additional advertising than they already receive in various banner ads. When you run across the site just remember – caveat emptor.

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