Crime prevention series

Public transport : on the railways

Published in:
Preventing graffiti and vandalism
Susan Geason and Paul Wilson
Canberra : Australian Institute of Criminology, 1990
ISBN 0 642 14936 4 ; ISSN 1031-5330
(Crime prevention series) ; pp. 27-40

As a result of their 1986 investigation into the graffiti and vandalism problems of the New South Wales State Railway Authority, Paul Wilson and Patricia Healy concluded that more than increased surveillance and higher penalties were needed.

From international evidence, they concluded that reducing graffiti and vandalism would best be accomplished not only by increasing the risk of capture of offenders, but also by diverting motivation by involving young people - and the community as a whole - in creative schemes to improve the environment, and by giving transportation systems a more human face.

Experience in a number of countries shows that preventing or minimising graffiti and vandalism seems to depend on the right formula, or package, of measures - police or railway police presence, electronic surveillance, quick and effective clean-ups, education campaigns, restrictions on the weapons or tools used, and programs and activities that prove more attractive to young people than bombing trains or hanging around railway stations.

A less traditional response - and one that seems to be successful with some graffitists at least - is mounting programs which take graffitists' artistic aspirations seriously and offering them a legal outlet for their art. This is the approach taken by the Bondi Youth Centre in Sydney and in Planned Parenthood's New York program.

New South Wales, Australia

In a 1986 public opinion poll carried out for the New South Wales State Rail Authority (SRA) by ANOP Research Services, 80 per cent of Sydneysiders surveyed said they were worried about their personal safety on trains and were also concerned about graffiti and vandalism. The SRA commissioned a study into the problem from the Australian Institute of Criminology, and this was produced in the same year as Graffiti and Vandalism by co-authors Paul Wilson and Patricia Healy.

The Wilson/Healy recommendations

As a result of their investigation, Paul Wilson and Patricia Healy made the following recommendations:

Fast repair of vandalism and graffiti removal by:

• establishing realistic and practical time limits for quick removal and repair;
• formation of mobile graffiti removal squads;
• incorporating, as quickly as possible, vandalism and graffiti resistant materials.

Community measures involving:

• publicly differentiating vandalism and graffiti from violent crime;
• using community murals and other forms of art on stations and in trains;
• improving liaison between transportation departments and schools, local communities and the media;
• diverting motivation by providing challenges or programs to raise young people's esteem through schools' parent/teacher associations;
• improving, in as many ways as economically possible, the physical and social environment of stations, carriages and public walkways.

Information systems which should:

• introduce a comprehensive system for the collection, analysis and dissemination of information on graffiti and vandalism.

Deterrent measures involving:

• establishing professional and specialised security services to combat these behaviours;
• increasing visibility of staff on trains and improved patrol procedures;
• establishing a Rail Watch (based on Neighbourhood Watch) for the staff and public;
• thorough investigation of the appropriateness of Community Service Orders for offenders.

If the opinion poll were repeated today, it would almost certainly reveal an escalation in the general anxiety level about safety in and around trains and stations. The matter came to a head in New South Wales in September 1988, when a series of violent incidents made the font pages of Sydney newspapers and caught the attention of the nation.

For example, graffiti was allegedly the link between five teenagers charged with abducting a Sydney woman from a railway station carpark at knifepoint and killing her. Shortly after, a 14-year-old street girl was charged with the murder of an old women who often slept in Sydney's Central Station women's lavatory.

The Transport Investigation Branch (TIB) of the New South Wales Police reportedly attributed 50 per cent of assaults on trains to youths (The Weekend Australian 17-18 September 1988). A spokesman listed an average day's crimes at Central as 10 bag snatches, a couple of assaults and a couple of sexual activities in the toilets.

Figures for a typical month at Central Station showed 25 robberies between 6 a.m. and 5 p.m; four assaults, 24 thefts, one graffiti and eight "drugs and behavioural" incidents between 5 p.m. and 10 p.m; between 10 p.m. and 1 a.m., 10 thefts, seven assaults, four drug and behavioural problems and one graffiti incident; and nine assaults between 1 a.m. and 6 a.m. A spokesman for the New South Wales Police Graffiti Squad maintains most of the 2,000 to 5,000 gang members carry weapons.

The 1988 Train Crime Offensive

The following are among the measures adopted by the New South Wales Government to combat vandalism and graffiti on trains.

• In February 1988, 250 members of the State Rail Authority's Railway Police were transferred to the New South Wales Police Department as the Transport Investigation Branch (TIB).
• A number of these TIB officers were selected to staff a Graffiti Task Force, which is part of the Police Department's Street Safety Program. Members of the Task Force patrol vulnerable areas and places where graffitists are known to congregate, identify graffitists by their tags and apprehend them, and respond to information from the public.
• The Graffiti Task Force's Tactical Intelligence Unit is endeavouring to systematise information on known and suspected graffitists to make identification and apprehension easier.

Bondi Youth Centre

This Government-funded youth centre is a home away from home for about 50 reformed graffiti artists, who have left their mark (legally) on the building's colourful walls. The youths have stopped "bombing" in favour of doing "pieces", or complete pictures.

The drop-in centre keeps young people entertained with activities, including a graffiti course which teaches them art and allows them to test their talents at legal venues donated by private or public contacts.

The centre's co-ordinator says it is "street kids" rather than the majority of graffitists who are into drugs, violence or vandalism. He says the bad publicity given graffiti gangs in the media will put the centre at risk, by attracting younger children to graffiti for all the wrong reasons (Sun-Herald, 18 September 1988).

Vandalism and graffiti on the MET, Victoria

According to the Victorian Minister for Transport (28 June 1988), the annual cost of combating graffiti and vandalism on the Met - Melbourne's urban rail system - is about $5 million a year.

The Victorian Government has initiated the following measures to fight the problem.

• Video surveillance of railway stations, starting with the new station at Frankston. Security cameras already operate at a number of stations. The Government also intends to trial closed circuit television surveillance inside trains.
• The Transit Police numbers will be increased from 220 to 400 by June 1990.
• Commuter Watch, the transport arm of Neighbourhood Watch has been set up. A poster campaign at stations is also being mounted to encourage passengers to report graffitists to the Transit Police on a special phone number.
• A Graffiti Clean Up Gang has been formed.
• Offenders on Community Service Orders will clean railway stations on weekends.
• Advertising will be introduced on trains for a trial period to reduce the amount of wall space available to graffitists and to help offset the cost of eradicating graffiti.
• In 1988 the Government doubled the number of train cleaners from 15 to 30 to get graffiti-damaged trains repaired and back into service as quickly as possible.
• Bicycle lockers and "chain and lockguard" devices were installed at a number of metropolitan stations in 1987, and a bicycle cages will be erected at others to prevent theft.
• Train guards are now required to move up and down carriages to be more visible and to offer help where needed. They investigate unruly behaviour and carry hand-held radios to summon assistance and report vandalism on trains or at stations.
• Sixty suburban stations are to be cleaned up.
• The Met is to experiment with vandal-proof surfaces, fittings and finishes.
• Security in stabling yards is to be improved, and the use of closed circuit television will be investigated.
• A Women and Transport Task Force has been established to advise the Minister for Transport on public transport matters affecting women. The first stage was a Women's Transport Needs Study.

The London Underground, the United Kingdom

An investigation by London Underground Limited (LUL) found that graffiti had developed from a minor problem in 1984 into a serious one by 1986. Graffiti styles had changed, too, apparently influenced by the popular American book Subway Art.

In 1985 the cost of cleaning trains, structures and stations totalled £200,000 and this was expected to rise to £408,000 in 1986. Staff reductions on some stations and the introduction of one-person-operated trains appeared to be contributing factors. On two badly hit lines, Hammersmith and the Circle Line, the worst damaged cars were those farthest from the train driver.

Preventive strategies

According to Paul Ekblom in a paper on preventing graffiti on the London Undergrounds (1986), the challenge for authorities was to find ways of responding to graffiti that do not:

1. increase the challenge or reward for offenders;
2. place the offenders in physical danger;
3. interfere with safe operations such as maintenance, cleaning, etc.;
4. cost too much;
5. require excessive manpower;
6. cause displacement to other places or to other anti-social activities.

Ekblom suggested the following approaches: (1) reducing or diverting the motivation of the offender, (2) substantially reducing the risk of capture, (3) rethinking penalties, (4) changing the composition or distribution of the paints used, and target hardening on the trains and in the depots.

1. Ekblom suggested that the motivation of the offender can be reduced or diverted by:
   • removing artwork quickly;
   • making sure surfaces ("canvases") are aesthetically unpleasing to the artists;
   • taking the glamour out of graffiti by reducing the challenge and preventing publicity;
   • promoting public disapproval or ridicule of the activity, or
   • waiting for the craze to die down.
   
   As well, offenders could be diverted from spray painting to another activity which provided a similar challenge and raises self-esteem. This could be done through schools or parent-teacher associations.
2. Authorities can attempt to reduce graffiti and vandalism by substantially increasing the risk of capture. This could be achieved by improved surveillance for example, through:
   • closed circuit television combined with a fast response;
   • better lighting;
   • surveillance by staff or nearby residents;
   • real or simulated security patrols.
   
   It could also be achieved by increasing security to prevent potential offenders gaining access to London Underground's operations information.
3. Ekblom suggested that, with regard to penalties, offenders should be required to make cash reparations, rather than cleaning up their mess, as cleaning off the graffiti could expose them to toxic chemicals or danger from live tracks or trains.
4. An obvious situational crime prevention solution is to attack the tool - in this case the paint spray. This could be done by asking manufacturers to:
   • produce paints less likely to cling to unprepared surfaces;
   • provide information on the most effective solvents for their paints;
   • make cans less suitable for the narrow jet favoured by graffitists;
   • put whistles in the cans.
   
   As well, the paint supply could be reduced by requiring retailers to:
   • tighten up security on spray paint displays;
   • introduce codes of practice on sales of cans to children, perhaps taking the restrictions placed on harmful glues as an example.
   
   The targets - train depots, trains, carriage surfaces - could be hardened in the following ways.
   • The target could be made more difficult to damage, and/or easier to repair by:
     • painting or impregnating surfaces;
     • using pop-out panels;
     • using wet surfaces.
   • Access to sites could be controlled by:
     • blocking or keeping under surveillance illegitimate entries
     • improving security at legitimate entrances.

The program

The following anti-graffiti strategies were recommended and adopted by a special meeting of London Underground Limited (11 June 1986).

• Continue to publicise monetary rewards to staff whose information leads to successful prosecutions.
• Enlist the help of regular passengers to assist in combating graffiti and criminal damage, using Neighbourhood Watch as a model, and seek the co-operation of people living along the train lines.
• Improve liaison between operating staff and the police.
• Improve reporting of graffiti to cleaning services department.
• As older trains are more susceptible to getting and retaining graffiti than new ones, newer stock should be stabled on roads known to be targets.
• Cultivate thorny brambles inside fences in vulnerable areas instead of impenetrable and insurmountable fences which cost too much.
• Improve staff security in closing and locking gates.
• As stations are refurbished, vandal-proof - or at least easily-cleaned - surfaces should be installed.
• Graffiti can be painted over on stations, and a paint should be developed that will cover graffiti on trains and resemble the metal surface.
• Investigations into non-toxic cleaning solvents should be intensified: a combined solvent and high pressure steam process seems promising.

The following recommendations were also considered to have merit, but because they were significantly more expensive, were conditional on a detailed cost-benefit analysis.

• Extend closed-circuit television monitoring to cover some rolling stock depots and more stations - this was favoured by the Police.
• Increasing police manpower was considered but found too costly and inflexible.
• Linishing (sanding down and polishing a bare metal surface) rolling stock exteriors. (This weakens the body panels and shows up against other unaffected panels, however.)
• Painting rolling stock exteriors. This has proven effective on British Rail trains. It is easier to clean and unremovable designs can be painted over. Because of the expense, however, LUL saw this as a last resort.

Transit police, Houston, the United States

Different jurisdictions in the United States have responded to railway crime differently - from employing traditional measures such as transport police, through educational programs, to art programs for graffitists.

Crime prevention measures - particularly the creation of the METRO Transit Police in 1982 - have cut associated crime in half on Houston's METRO Transit Authority (Crime Prevention News 1988).

Between 1983 and 1986 vandalism dropped by 52 per cent, crime on buses by 60 per cent, and crime on park and ride lots by 59 per cent. Crime incidents per 100,000 passengers fell from 12.3 to 5.0.

The Transit Authority takes crime prevention education and anti-vandalism programs into primary and secondary schools and produces crime prevention brochures for adults, available from all METRO Transit Centres.

Recently METRO Transit initiated a Lifesaver identification tag program for children and a mobile crime prevention bus. A Transit on Watch program, which will train drivers to report suspicious activities to the police, is also planned.

New York Transit Authority Campaign, USA

According to a spokesman for "The We Care About New York", a non-profit, private group dedicated to fighting graffiti and litter, 95 per cent of railway carriages on the New York subway had been vandalised inside and out by the early 1980s, costing the City of New York some $42 million in cleaning bills. After the campaign, 86 per cent of the city's railway cars have been made graffiti-free (Sunday Telegraph 25 September 1988). As well, the number of arrests for graffiti-vandalism had dropped from approximately 2,400 people in 1984 to 300 in 1987.

The anti-graffiti campaign initiated by the Transit Authority's new director, David L. Gunn, in 1984 included greatly improved security measures, fast removal of graffiti to deny vandals the pleasure of seeing their handiwork, and the introduction of imaginative programs to provide graffitists with alternative pursuits. New York State has also clamped down on the sale of spray paint cans, preventing their sale to minors; and new city ordinances require store owners to keep the sprays behind wire mesh or locked in racks to prevent theft - graffitists' preferred method of obtaining their tools (Sunday Telegraph 25 September 1988).

According to New York Transit Police statistics (New York Times May 1989) the environment in New York's subway system has improved dramatically in the past four years. The percentage of subway cars with broken door panels has dropped from 29 to 11, of defaced wall subway maps from 36 to 2, of interior graffiti from 85 to 3 and broken or spray-painted windows from 62 to 1.

Although the Transit Authority's director said guard dogs on unused cars and the new ordinances made it harder for minors to buy or steal spray paints, Gunn gave most of the credit for the dramatic decrease in graffiti to the Authority's policy of erasing graffiti - whether a tag or a mural running the length of a train - within 24 hours.

Crime is another story. The number of crimes reported in February 1985 was 2,413, and 2,420 in February 1989, with the number of robberies increasing from 324 to 550. On the positive side, however, robbery arrests in the same two months rose from 138 to 280.

Other cities in the United States have reportedly followed New York's example.

Planned Parenthood Program

Planned Parenthood of New York have launched a program in which offenders receive art supplies and a chance to exhibit their work in return for a pledge not to write graffiti. In 1987 nine former graffitists reportedly earned over $2,000 for their art at an exhibition (Sunday Telegraph 25 September 1988).

The Guardian Angels, New York

In some cases, members of the public have taken action themselves to prevent crime on public transport. For the past 10 years groups of young people called the Guardian Angels have been patrolling New York's subway system trying to prevent violence on trains. They carry no weapons, but wear khaki army fatigues, black army boots, badge-clustered red berets and white tee-shirts with the Angels insignia.

Angels are not permitted to drink alcohol or carry weapons.

Claiming that subway crime was out of control, Curtis Sliwa and 12 volunteers began riding the New York subways during allegedly peak crime hours as "The Magnificent Thirteen Subway Safety Patrol" in February 1979. Their purpose was to deter crime by their presence and make citizen arrests when serious crimes were observed.

The idea caught on and attracted large numbers of volunteers. The group was formally organised, the now familiar uniform a tee-shirt and red beret was adopted, and the name changed to the Guardian Angels. By 1981 the Angels were claiming a membership of 1,000 throughout the United States, 700 of whom operated within the five boroughs of New York City; and by 1985, membership was estimated at 5,000 (Kenney 1986).

The Guardian Angels regard crime as a breakdown not in law enforcement, but in citizen involvement, and offer themselves as examples of community responsibility. They claim that, by 1982 they had interrupted crimes and made arrests in over 258 instances, 136 of which involved suspects armed with guns or knives. They also report numerous cases of finding missing children, helping the elderly and injured, and even rescuing one police officer. Many see preventing crime by their presence as their major contribution to law and order.

Studies have been carried out both to measure the effectiveness of the Guardian Angels in reducing crime and fear of crime on subways, and to decide whether or not they should be regarded as vigilantes.

To test the Guardian Angels' impact on crime in New York subways, Kenney and his associates (1986) carried out a complex evaluation of their program. Among their findings were the following.

• Because crime rates turned out to be so low on the subway - accounting for somewhat less than 2.7 per cent of the city's crime - and crime was so sporadic in the survey area, the researchers could not reach any definite conclusion about the Angels' impact on reducing crime.
• Although the level of fear turned out to be much lower than expected - with half the respondents only a little worried or not worried at all about subway crime - 61 per cent of those surveyed felt that the presence of the Angels made them feel safer, while 66 per cent believed the Angels could actually reduce crime itself.
• The Guardian Angels found their greatest support among those who felt most threatened by night-time crime on the subways - women, especially Hispanic women.

The evaluation team concluded that the Guardian Angels' role in law enforcement was mixed, and that it was difficult to determine how strongly the public's opinion about them were held. They speculated that the Angels' rhetoric about subway crime might actually contribute to fear, and maintained that the organisation's claim of reducing crime on the subways remains unproven but doubtful. Finally, they echoed the concern of some commentators that the Guardian Angels, like many active citizen action organisations before them, might evolve into a socially destructive force.

On the positive side, an assessment of the Guardian Angels carried out by Pennell, Curtis and Henderson for the US National Institute of Justice (1986) found.

• In some cities like Cleveland, Angels are quite visible performing both a helping role and an order maintenance role as they assist people onto buses and urge riders to stay behind the lines where the buses stop.
• There are few organisations like the Guardian Angels that purposely recruit multi-racial groups of young people to commit time and energy to community crime prevention.
• The Angels offer an alternative approach for citizen involvement in crime prevention by providing positive role models for youth, bridging the gap between older citizens and adolescents and reducing the fear of crime for certain segments of the general citizenry.
• The founder, Curtis Sliwa, possesses charismatic qualities that motivate young minority youth to become positive role models by becoming involved in volunteer crime prevention efforts. By tapping a previously unrecognised group of young people, Sliwa offers what is perceived as a worthy mission. He "dares" the Angels to "care" and combines the macho image with an orientation that supports the value of helping others.
• The most significant feature of the Guardian Angels may be that they represent a group of young people generally seen as contributing to the crime problem rather than to its solution.

The authors cite a study which contradicts the label of vigilantism often attached to the Guardian Angels by the popular press and law enforcement authorities. They speculated that the cool response of the police to the Angels was based on both this perception of them as vigilantes and a fear that groups would make tactical mistakes and abuse their power (although the authors found few specific instances where Angels intervened inappropriately).

Pennell et al made the following recommendations designed to improve Guardian Angels' approach to crime prevention and deterrence.

• The Angels should adhere to their National Rules and Regulations, in terms of minimum age, screening of applicants, standardised uniforms and improved record keeping.
• They should increase their interaction and co-ordination with other citizen groups.
• In each city, Angel Chapters should increase public awareness about their objectives.
• Training for members should be standardised.
• To improve recruitment, the national leader should participate in local recruitment drives on an ongoing basis.
• The Guardian Angels should seek a rapprochement with police, community leaders and decision makers in cities where there is not a clear understanding of respective roles.
• Prior to setting up new patrols in neighbourhoods, Guardian Angels should first meet with community leaders to identify concerns and needs of the citizenry and the types of groups in existence to address these problems.

Late in 1988 the group's founder, Curtis Sliwa, visited London to assess the need for a British chapter of the organisation and returned with four followers in January 1989, only to be held at Heathrow Airport and questioned by Special Branch officers. The view of the U.K. Home Office was that the problem in London is not as bad as that in New York, and vigilantes are not the answer (Sydney Morning Herald, 27 January 1989).

Representatives of the Guardian Angels also visited Australia in 1989, but so far no chapters of the organisation have been set up here.

Metro, Washington DC, the United States

During its first year of operation, the Metro mass transit system in Washington - which has one of the highest crime rates in the United States - had only 46 crime incidents, and these were minor. The Metro's security plan included employing crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) measures in the planning and construction of the system, heavy staffing by uniformed transit police during the first phase, and a sophisticated communications system linking station attendants, a control centre and police and emergency services.

Metro architects designed the system to instil a sense of security in passengers and to minimise opportunities for crime. To diminish people's fear of going underground, they designed a spacious environment with excellent visibility. Columns were kept to a minimum and attendants' booths were centrally located. There are no long passageways; the route from the surface to the station is relatively short. This means passengers do not lose their sense of orientation and people are discouraged from hanging around.

The stations offer virtually no places where criminals can conceal themselves. Indirect, soft lighting provides ample illumination while reducing glare and eliminating shadows. And because public lavatories in subways attract criminal activities, Metro opens them only on request.

Metro has also developed a sophisticated communications system connecting station attendants and police to the operations control centre. Control centre, in turn, can communicate directly with all local police, fire and rescue teams. Closed circuit television cameras in blind spots can be monitored from attendants' booths.

AC Transit Company Campaign, Oakland, California, the United States

As a response to serious problems of vandalism, harassment and drug activity on the AC Transit Company in the early 1980s, one of the company's administrators brought together Oakland gang leaders, service providers and businesses to address the issue. A youth council of gang leaders was established, and private sector support was enlisted to develop programs to provide jobs for young adults. The result was that crime fell on the transit system and minority youth were given a stake in their community (Pennell et al 1986).