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West Chester police coordinate graffiti enforcement, launch online recruiting and plan social-worker hire
Summary
Police Chief Josh Lee said officers are coordinating with other municipalities and utility companies to address growing graffiti on traffic boxes and other equipment, noted an active suspect in a nearby township investigation, and announced a new online recruiting platform and plans to advertise a police social worker position in February.
Residents raised growing graffiti on traffic boxes and other fixtures during public comment; one resident said the graffiti included an offensive image and asked for coordination across departments and with utilities to remove it.
"There has been graffiti in Maple Alley... it's a woman with a machine gun, which I find offensive," a resident said during public comment. The resident asked for police and community-service coordination with Verizon and others to allow removal.
Police Chief Josh Lee told council he has noticed similar graffiti and that his officers have been reporting incidents. He said West Goshen Township is investigating a related case and "they have a suspect, that they're working on identifying." Lee advised residents to report graffiti so borough resources can follow up. He explained borough ordinance places cleanup responsibility on property owners and, when perpetrators are charged and convicted, restitution can be required but the process "takes time." "The ordinance gives the resident a finite period of time to correct that graffiti," he said.
On staffing, Lee said the police department has launched an online application through Police App for officer recruitment and has seen early interest. "For the first time ever, utilized an app that happens to be called Police App... in the first two hours, we received two applications ... in a week in now, we're up above 20 applications," he said. The posting is open through Feb. 13, Lee said.
Lee also said the department plans to advertise a police social-worker position. "I'm putting together a team now, to put a job description together and a requirement... My hope is to be advertising that February 1 and to hopefully be interviewing for that in March," he said.
Why it matters: graffiti prompted public concern about offensive imagery and neighborhood appearance; the police described enforcement processes, cleanup responsibilities under local ordinance, and an ongoing investigation in a neighboring township. The department is also expanding recruitment methods and creating a social-worker role to augment police services.
Ending: Chief Lee said officers photograph graffiti on discovery so cleanup can proceed and that the borough's special services unit follows up on nuisance and code issues. He encouraged residents to report incidents even if they believe they've already been reported.
