Indianapolis—The Marion County Prosecutor's Office, Marion County Health and Hospital and the United State's Marshall's Service today combined forces in a multi-agency sweep on the city's near Eastside. The object:: to take aim at graffiti, code violations and fugitives in an area bounded by Central Avenue, College Avenue, 16th Street and 18th Street.
"Any signs of neglect in a neighborhood are like an open invitation to criminals to claim it as their own," said Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi. "Today's actions are another battle in the overall war against blight and crime in Indianapolis."
The Take Away Graffiti (TAG) initiative of the Prosecutor's Office Community Prosecution Division is ridding 10 buildings in the area of graffiti. "In addition," added Brizzi, "We're handing out our new anti-graffiti flyers. The flyers explain to residents the importance of painting over graffiti as soon as it appears. If they can't do it themselves, then the flyer gives them contact information for the TAG team to get the job done."
Health and Hospital is inspecting an apartment complex at the corner of 16th Street and North Central Avenue for code violations.
Earlier this morning, officers from the Marion County Failure to Appear unit, United States Marshall's Office and Indianapolis Police Department North District served warrants on wanted criminals.
Brizzi added that the area has been the scene of more than 1,100 crime reports in the past year, with a printout of 48 pages. The reports include 202 arrests on outstanding warrants, 165 larcenies, 88 narcotics investigations, 71 traffic arrests, 45 burglaries and much more.
