Penal offensive by the Barcelona City Council to prevent uncivil attitudes one year before the municipal elections.
The Consistory will denounce graffiti on subway cars and heritage buildings, such as churches, as a crime of damage, so the person caught committing graffiti can face a prison sentence and fines of more than 3,000 euros.
The decision represents a drastic change in the way of dealing with graffiti in the city since until now 99% of the sanctions were followed by administrative means with fines of between 300 and 500 euros.
In the last five years, the Guàrdia Urbana has imposed an average of between 150 and 200 annual complaints.
In this way, police controls will be intensified to prevent the authors of graffiti on urban furniture, transport or heritage buildings from going unpunished, such as those that have occurred in recent weeks in Maria del Mar or the Pi church.
In this sense, the deputy mayor for Security, Albert Batlle, assured that criminal responsibility will be requested when the graffiti involves "a significant impact on a public good" and in cases in which this "patrimonial aggression" goes beyond the " tarnishing" because it forces the paralysis of the service, such as public transport.
In addition, Batlle pointed out that there is a situation of degradation due to the lack of "dissuasive sanctioning action" and "cleaning" by the Consistory.
For this reason, he indicated that the objective is to end impunity for graffiti artists by increasing fines for damaging historical or cultural heritage, as well as transportation or street furniture.
"We must address the situation of degradation of public space with effort and resources, and clear and unequivocal political guidelines," said the deputy mayor.
The City Council increased from 30 to 50 spaces in the city enabled to "respond to the artistic proposals" of graffiti artists.
It will also reinforce the specific cleaning teams for graffiti since it currently has 26 teams from Monday to Saturday, although six of them will work specifically in Ciutat Vella.
As part of the "Cuidem Barcelona" campaign to reduce uncivil attitudes in public spaces and improve coexistence, the Consistory will act against graffiti, commercial collection and the abandonment of bulky objects on the street.
Therefore, they will increase by one million euros, the control and cleaning of these graffiti in listed buildings with more operators, who will gain flexibility to act.
Last year, 115,092 interventions were carried out and 279,422 square meters of facades were cleaned, while in this year 2022, 30,345 interventions have already been carried out and 71,114 square meters have been cleaned.
The Consistory will reinforce the collection of commercial waste every day and will prevent some stores from collapsing the container by not folding the cartons or leaving them outside of them.
For this reason, there will be 44 informants who will carry out educational tasks of dialogue with the locals, although there will also be fines of between 300 and 3,000 euros if there is a recidivism.
It also increases the control of non-compliance with the rules for collecting dog faeces or with the fact of carrying out physiological needs on public roads, through the signaling of conflictive points and informative actions in the streets and squares.
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