The City of St. Albert’s facilities services department has noticed a huge uptick in vandalism and graffiti-related incidents this year.
The latest round of mischief to city buildings and property occurred in October. Vandals smashed windows at Lacombe Park Lake washrooms, stole fixtures from the Woodlands Skatepark on Red Willow Trail, tagged Deerbourne Park’s rink with derogatory graffiti, and attempted to remove subdivision signs and plaques.
“There seems to be a little bit of an increase this year. Obviously, Lacombe Lake getting its windows broken is not common. We’re finding kids are stealing soap dispensers and that kind of stuff as well as [fixtures] in the case of the skate park,” said Doug Moore, the city’s facilities services manager.
The city's statistics show that from Jan. 1 to Oct. 31, 114 acts of vandalism and 250 acts of graffiti were reported. This compares with 52 acts of vandalism and 62 acts of graffiti for all of 2020.
These statistics only include incidents reported on public property. Private property reports are dealt with by municipal enforcement. This includes private buildings and businesses, resident fences, and power/cable boxes.
Moore added that the majority of vandalized public property runs along the Red Willow Trail system. While some parties may feel they are pulling an innocent prank, the actions are criminal, and the costs to replace and repair sites add up. For instance, the four broken windows at Lacombe Park cost the city an estimated $5,000 to repair.
On a slightly smaller scale, multiple vandalism and graffiti repairs at the skateboard park washroom facility have cost the city $3,000 to $4,000. Typically, repairing or repainting graffiti at outdoor rinks costs a few hundred dollars to fix each time.
The city carries insurance that was increased in December 2020 to a $500,000 deductible. As a result, Moore said, claims are not submitted to the insurance company and the city is on the hook for all repair costs.
Staff hours as well as materials eat into the budget. Currently, about 500 hours of labour have gone into responding and repairing these types of incidents since January 2021.
“In our case, when it comes to buildings, playgrounds, and outdoor rinks, our parks department spends about two hours a day dealing with graffiti and vandalism in the Red Willow Park System,” Moore said.
Proactive measures under discussion to deter crime include possible installations of a panoramic camera or CCTV in locations where multiple incidents occur.
“But there’s no determination on that now.”
Although Moore is unsure of the reasons for the uptick in mischief, several sources have speculated that TikTok may be the influencer.
On Sept. 1, the social media giant posted “Devious Licks,” a challenge that features videos of students destroying school bathroom fixtures while damaging and stealing other forms of school property.
“Sometimes you see things trending through these social media challenges and TikTok dares people to do different things. Whether or not social media is responsible, no one is 100-per-cent sure. It could be a possible reason for the influx. But we’ve also had a nice fall and people are outside longer,” said RCMP Const. MJ Burroughs.
She added that, at the moment, RCMP have no leads on the incidents mentioned in this article.
“However, St. Albert residents are excellent resources for us. If they hear or see anything, call us and we’ll come check it out.”
