Graffiti Prevention & Removal

Our Graffiti Rangers are in the community daily, responding to graffiti abatement requests and conducting proactive inspections to remove graffiti in the public right of way and city assets. The program is dedicated to maintaining clean, beautiful public spaces for all Seattle residents. 

Our graffiti enforcement intake addresses city-wide graffiti reports on public property. The program promptly dispatches requests and complaints to the appropriate city departments and agencies within 48 hours of receiving a service request. Each department aims to clean up reported graffiti within 10 business days.

How to Deal with Graffiti

Report graffiti: Download the Find It, Fix It mobile app to submit service requests, submit via the online report form, or call the City's Graffiti Report Line at (206) 684-7587 to report graffiti on public property, or on private property that has persisted for a period of time. If reporting graffiti on your own private property, a waiver requesting SPU Graffiti Rangers or volunteers to clean the property will be sent via email if you wish to complete it. Make a police report online or call (206) 625-5011 when graffiti appears on your property. If you see an act of graffiti vandalism in progress, call 911 immediately.

Hate graffiti gets high priority treatment. The City takes hate, sexist, and racist graffiti seriously. Our goal is to respond to such graffiti on public property as soon as possible, usually within 24 hours. 

Remove graffiti: When graffiti appears on your home, apartment building, or business, take a photo to document for insurance purposes. After the police document the vandalism, remove or paint over the graffiti immediately.

Volunteer to clean up graffiti. Become an Adopt a Street volunteer and receive City support and supplies to clean up graffiti.

Make your property graffiti-resistant. Steps that are known to work include installing improved lighting and flashing motion-sensor lighting, growing vines or appropriate vegetation to cover unpainted retaining walls, installing a graffiti-resistant coating on your walls, keeping matching paint on hand to quickly paint out graffiti, and installing cameras to monitor activity on your property.

Graffiti on private property

We help enforce the Graffiti Nuisance Ordinance on private property, which was adopted in 1994. This ordinance requires property owners to address graffiti promptly. We encourage swift graffiti cleanup to prevent its spread throughout the community. Failure to comply may result in the property being considered a nuisance, which could initiate the enforcement process.

 
Additionally, we offer paint and other resources to property owners to assist in graffiti paint-out efforts, ensuring the prompt removal of graffiti and maintaining the city's cleanliness. Property owners can participate in our waiver program, allowing our SPU Graffiti Rangers or volunteers to paint out graffiti on private property. 

Please report graffiti on city buildings, vehicles, litter cans, and recycling bins by using the online report form or the Find It, Fix It mobile app. You can also call the Graffiti Report Line at (206) 684-7587.