City of Las Vegas graffiti technicians anticipate covering 130,000+ tags this year

LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — Graffiti tags can be found all around the Las Vegas valley, on public and private property.

Typically, a quick look at a wall will give a person a hint as to whether or not it has been tagged before.

“It’s an eyesore," Matthew Meyer said. "We try to keep things covered because once you get graffiti, it tends to attract other graffiti, and it just starts growing out of control. If we can keep it down, it makes it a lot better.”

Meyer is the Streets and Sanitation Manager with the City of Las Vegas. He oversees a team of nine graffiti technicians who are tasked with covering up tags all throughout the boundaries of the city.

“Usually places with high visibility, downtown has a lot – we have two techs dedicated just to the downtown area," he said. “The whole east side has a lot of spots, and as you go west, they fade down a little bit, but it’s common throughout.”

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Meyer says the team covers up hundreds of tags a day.

“That’ll be about 130-135,000 tags that we’ll cover," he said.

News 3 had the chance to tag along with one of the technicians as he worked on covering up a few tags at Gary Reese Freedom Park.

“Almost every day I come over here," he said. “These are some of my hot spots over here in the park.”

This technician knows his territory well. He's worked an eight-square-mile sector on the east side for the past seven years. He estimates he's covered up around 150,000 tags.

"50 to 70 work orders, a day," he said.

He says it can be frustrating sometimes - as he'll clean up a spot and people will come and tag it the next day. But, it doesn't discourage him. He takes pride in what he does.

"I love this city, and I try to make it look better," he said.

There are risks with the job. The technician says the taggers are often unhappy to see he's painted over their tag.

“You definitely have to watch your back," he said.

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Meyer elaborated a bit more on some of the situations his staff has experienced.

“Our staff has been threatened, they’ve heard gunshots before, they’ve had knives pulled on them," he said.

But something that happens more frequently than not according to the technician?

“There are people who come out and thank us every day," he said.

The technician admits that sometimes the graffiti that he comes across can be pretty impressive. Sometimes, they have to find out if it was put there with permission. Other times, they can see it is just a tag.

“They have really good artwork. If they could just get into something else besides just destroying property," he said. “This is not the way to do it. I mean, they’re destroying property, sometimes they do people’s houses, cars.”

He and his team are only responsible for problems within the city limits. He says there are teams specific to North Las Vegas, Henderson, and Clark County.

If you're having a graffiti problem, hotline information for each jurisdiction is as follows:

• City of Las Vegas: (702) 229-6615
• North Las Vegas: (702) 633-1871
• Clark County: (702) 455-4509
• City of Henderson: (702) 267-3220