But the number of graffiti reports made to Christchurch City Council in January (1455) only increased slightly compared to December last year (1436), according to the council’s Graffiti Snapshot data.
There were 534 reports of tagging in the central city in January and 598 in December.
The city's coastal areas ranked second for graffiti reports with the majority of incidents coming from New Brighton, which had 305 in January – a significant increase from the 173 reports in December.
In Christchurch, 4826sq m of graffiti was removed compared to 4599sq m the previous month.
Colombo St was next, with 215sq m, and Thomson Park (191sq m), Washington Way Skate Park (130sq m) and Bernard St, off Lincoln Rd, (120sq m) round out the top five.
There were two instances where tagging led to police proceedings.
One person over 17 appeared in court due to an incident and another person was issued a formal warning.
Sergeant Jim Currie said it is often hard to charge people with graffiti-related offences unless they are caught in the act.
He said tagging is usually done by young people who "get bored".
He said police do not usually receive many reports of tagging, but it is positive to see many people are reporting it to the city council so it can be removed.
