The Portland City Council is debating whether graffiti taggers deserve prison time

PORTLAND, Ore. (KPTV) – Do graffiti taggers deserve prison time? This is an ongoing debate among Portland city commissioners. The debate comes after a new city survey found a nearly 600% increase in graffiti complaints between 2020 and 2022.

One thing all city commissioners agree on is that graffiti has been a problem in Portland since the 1940s. But how to regulate that is a completely different story.

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City Commissioner Rene Gonzalez proposed an emergency ordinance that would create a new city misdemeanor for graffiti taggers with a minimum penalty of seven days in jail.

As for Commissioner Mingus Mapps, he wants to amend the ordinance and expand it to cover defacing public property. He also wants a second amendment that would give taggers the ability to choose between prison and community service.

But Commissioner Carmen Rubio wants to eliminate mandatory minimum prison sentences entirely and replace them with fines or community service.

While the commissioners propose different solutions, the city has a common goal of resolving the issue as quickly as possible, noting, “Any delay in enforcement would further degrade the quality of life in the City of Portland.”

An emergency order application goes on to say that Portland police urgently need another way to prevent peaceful protests from escalating into riots, noting that graffiti often contributes to escalation.

City councilors are also examining how the city cleans up graffiti.

The city’s Graffiti Help Center is currently offering free or discounted help with graffiti removal; However, the program does not proactively prevent new graffiti from appearing throughout the city.

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Currently, reducing the amount of graffiti around Portland costs the city and state millions of dollars each year.

Not only is it a major financial burden, but in the 2022-2023 Portland Insights survey, respondents said graffiti was a concern when discussing safety issues in the community, feeling unsafe, and contributing to their feelings of that Portland was “lawless.” City.

The issue was originally scheduled to be discussed at Wednesday’s City Council meeting, but with so many proposed changes and disagreements, there is a chance the discussion could be delayed.

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