Constable Callum Macarthur from the East Metropolitan District Crime Team said in excess of 80 charges were handed out for criminal damage and police were very pleased with the result.
‘We had offenders who reside in the Midland sub-district, Bassendean and East Victoria Park.’
All were over the age of 18, with the majority around 20, Const Macarthur said.
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The operation included one incident where Const Macarthur said a member of the public collected spray cans from a graffiti site and this led to a person being charged with criminal damage, due to a latent fingerprint being collected from the can.
He said information supplied from the public also led to the arrests of numerous other offenders in the East Metropolitan District, with total charges in excess of 80 counts of criminal damage.
Before the operation to target taggers was launched Const Macarthur quoted figures which showed the clean-up costs of graffiti at about $30 million in WA alone.
‘Acts of vandalism are not welcome and not legal,’ he said.
Police said evidence had shown that graffiti and tagging leads to other more serious crime.
‘The crime is linked to other escalating more criminal behaviour,’ he said.