Millions spent on anti-graffiti project

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The Stop töhryille (“Stop Tagging”) anti-graffiti project, and the Clean City project, which were brought to an end late last year, cost nearly EUR 24 million in ten years of operation to keep the city looking neat.
      Keeping the walls of buildings, trains, buses and trams free of unauthorised artwork got EUR 14.2 million in direct financing from the city budget between 1998 and 2008.
      In addition, other city units, the railway company VR, and private businesses paid nearly EUR 10 million to the campaign for cleanup and surveillance services.
      Most of the money went into Stop töhryille, which specialised in fighting graffiti and tags. About a tenth went into the Clean City project of Helsinki’s Public Works Department. Clean City was launched in 2002, with the main aim of cleaning up unauthorised rubbish dumps.
     
The Helsinki City Council launched the anti-graffiti campaign over ten years ago. Since then, unauthorised artwork using spray paint and marking pens, as well as posters pasted on walls, have almost completely disappeared from Helsinki.
      “Of all large cities, Helsinki was the one with the most graffiti. Now it is the cleanest”, says Kauko Nygrén of the Public Works Department.
      However, the anti-graffiti campaign has also come under some criticism.
     
A key principle behind the project has been zero tolerance, and the immediate cleanup of all graffiti as soon as they appear.
      The project has been criticised by the city’s Youth Department for being too severe. The city has refused to allow the setting up of walls for legal graffiti art.
      Critics also say that the campaign has turned anti-graffiti activities into a money machine, which mainly benefits security companies.
     
At total of EUR 2.9 million was spent on services of private security companies in 1996 to 2007. According to Nygrén, most of the money went to one such company, FPS.
      Most of the money was spent on surveillance. Another EUR 300,000 was spent on expert testimony and services linked with trials resulting from graffiti cases.
      Nygrén denies suggestions that the campaign would have led to the financial ruin of those caught and convicted of producing graffiti to massive monetary compensation.
      Significant damages have been imposed in graffiti cases, but Nygrén says that those involving the City of Helsinki have led to damages of no more than a few thousand euros.
      He also says that most of the cases have been resolved between the perpetrator and the city.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Prison sentences and compensation demands have curbed graffiti in Helsinki (31.3.2006)
  Four get prison sentences for graffiti - total of 22 convictions (21.9.2005)

See also:
  Police dismiss accusations of use of excess force during graffiti demonstration (18.9.2008)

Helsingin Sanomat