TUKWILA, Wash. — On Sunday, a handful of community members and Tukwila police officers teamed up to remove graffiti that's been popping up throughout the city this week.
"We can send the message, not here, not in Tukwila," said Katrina Dohn who was among a group of community members and officers that took to the streets on Sunday.
"We've noticed somebody had been doing a whole lot of tagging and we don't want that in our community, we want Tukwila to be beautiful," said Dohn.
Dohn is a retired Tukwila School District teacher who spearheaded the cleanup efforts. The event was organized with the Tukwila Police Department just the day before, after this past week's disturbing trend.
"It's not very common, some other cities you see it fairly frequently, it's very visible and that's something we try to keep at a minimum here and for us to see, I would say about 50 to 60 tags in the past two to three nights alone, that's a major uptick," said Victor Masters, the Public Information Officer with Tukwila Police Department.
Masters said the majority of the graffiti was found along Tukwila International Boulevard. He also said the handful of people who showed up on Sunday spent hundreds of dollars on paint, paint brushes, rollers, and other equipment. Lowe’s Home Improvement also chipped in some supplies to support the group’s effort. Despite the cost, the volunteers said it was worth it.
"The best thing you can do when graffiti happens is to paint over it within 24 hours,” said Dohn. “To just send that message. Not here, not in our community, that's not our kind of place."
Dohn hopes these community clean-ups will happen on a more regular basis to help bring the community together and to paint a picture of what they want their city to represent.
"We have our city administrator here, we have our police officers here, we have a high school teacher,” said Dohn. “Everybody doing small things adds up to great things and adds up to a huge difference."