Police investigate after teen seen spray painting graffiti in Regina

Regina police are investigating a graffiti artist who was caught on camera earlier this month.

This particular incident was in north Regina, but police say graffiti is common throughout the city, and it’s not getting better.

Cpl. Todd Jerome, graffiti coordinator with the Regina Police Service, says police have identified the 17-year-old in the photo, and charges of mischief under $5,000 are expected to be laid.

“Sometimes you know, it’s one of those things, you know, you kind of have to get lucky and somebody get caught in the act,” said Jerome.

Jerome said that when they do manage to arrest someone, often a lot of charges end up getting laid. The last two people Jerome said were arrested had 67 charges between them.

“Most of the time it’s one or two people doing a lot of the graffiti, so it’s quite a detailed process to go ahead and compile all those charges.”

There are few different types of graffiti that show up here, he explained, including gang tags. He said in the case of gang tags it will often be different people painting the same thing. But in the case of other taggers, it will be one person doing the same thing over and over again.

Jerome said the best way to deal with graffiti is to record it with photos, report it to the police, and then get rid of it.

“The longer you let graffiti stay on a wall, or wherever it may be, other graffiti people will come along and they’ll tag the same spot, and it’ll just grow, grow, grow.”