Multiple rounds of vandalism have been reported at Memorial Park in Independence since early August, and the city is considering changes to prevent the problem from getting worse in the future.
“Every city that has public parks, they get vandalized,” said Independence Police Captain Mike Brock.
Independence’s Parks and Recreation Director Arron Cope said that although the problem has “been going on for years,” there’s been an increase in the past few months. Most of the problems have occurred at Memorial Park, Cope said, but there have been incidents at some of the other parks, as well.
Most of the problems are targeted at the parks’ bathrooms, Cope said.
“They will bust up the sinks. They will rip the sinks off the wall. They will bust up the toilets. They rip the doors off the stalls,” said Cope. “Anything that’s not vandal-proof, they will try to remove it from the wall or break it.”
Cope also said that some of the bridges on the nature trails had been destroyed.
“The bridge one time was completely torn apart, and then two weeks after we replaced it, someone went back out there and ripped boards off again,” Cope said.
The people doing it are likely teenagers and other juveniles, Cope and Brock said. A juvenile had been caught jumping on a sink in one of the bathrooms earlier this summer, for instance. A resident spotted him and called the police before any damage could be done.
“I don’t know why kids would be motivated to damage public property,” Brock said, other than that perhaps they or their friends found it funny.
Brock couldn’t share details of ongoing investigations, but he said the department was perhaps close to identifying suspects. There are cameras around the parks, but Brock admitted that recent poor weather conditions had degraded the quality of some of the security footage.
Understandably, there aren’t any cameras in the restrooms, Cope said, which makes them “an easy target.”
The park’s restrooms will soon be locked and closed for the winter months, depending on the temperatures. Brock said the department has stepped up police presence in the area, especially right after school lets out. They’re also considering adding new cameras around the parks in the future. Cope added that the parks department is looking into buying special anti-graffiti paint for the park structures that contains nonstick chemicals, easing graffiti removal.
Although the vandalism was frustrating, Brock qualified his statements by saying that teenagers as a group weren’t responsible for the bad actions of only a handful.
“Typically it’s a very small percentage of our teenagers,” Brock said, who engage in that sort of activity.
At a forum for city council candidates earlier this week, all of the candidates expressed the importance of the city’s parks to Independence’s well-being and appeal as a place to raise a family.
“This is the crown jewel of our city, this park right here,” said councilmember Carol Franzen, indicating Memorial Park. “We’ve added so many things to it since I first was on council. It’s amazing.”
“I’m 110% behind supporting the parks, keeping them going, maintaining them…,” said Councilmember Dave Shafer. “To the vandals out there, you’re going to get caught.”
Anyone who spots anything suspicious or who has knowledge of the vandalism can make an anonymous report to Kenton County Dispatch at (859)356-3191.