Germantown police officers have created a 10-officer unit to combat rising graffiti in the fifth police district, which covers up-country
areas from Poolesville to Damascus.
Sgt. Marco Di Chiro came up with the idea for the “graffiti eradication team,” and 10 officers volunteered to paint over graffiti on fences, light poles, bus stops and other locations during their “unobligated time,” when officers are working but not responsible for answering calls. Officers must get permission from property owners before tackling graffiti on private property.
“In our area, any site with graffiti still stands out, but it is slowly growing in popularity,” Capt. Tom Didone said. “Any sign of graffiti inevitably leads to more because it creates a sense of competition. Some of it is gang-related, but most is done by youth with a lot of time on their hands.”
The graffiti eradication team’s first project was repainting a 25-foot section of weathered fence along Route 118 in Germantown that had been covered in graffiti for roughly two years.
Di Chiro said he received lots of positive feedback from community members who noticed the cleaned-up fence right away. He said the group has a to-do list
with 10 other projects on it at this time.
“We can’t do everything,” Didone said. “Someone would like us to paint over their vinyl house siding that was damaged by graffiti, but we haven’t fine-tuned our skills to where we’re ready to accept challenges of that nature.”
