Taggers head to seaside

Seaside suburbs are being hit with graffiti - carried out, police believe, by taggers getting to the area from other parts of the city on buses.

Sergeant Bevan Seal said youth from the other side of town were causing many of the problems.

The latest target has been the South Brighton Surf Club.

"We are aware that a small group of young people are causing the damage but we need the public to let us know as soon as they see anything suspicious," said Sergeant Seal.

"The problem with tagging is the people who are doing it are very transient. They jump on a bus to New Brighton do their tag and then hop on another bus to the other side of town and repeat the process.

"Tagging is all about young people getting their name out there and then telling other young people where they have managed to put their tag. It's a nuisance crime which makes New Brighton look untidy."

With tagging across the city costing the ratepayer over $1 million annually, New Brighton police make use of the Christchurch City Council's Graffiti Programme which has an extensive database cataloguing the tags.

"This is a very effective tool. We send them through photos of the tagging and they check it against their database to see if they can identify the tagger."