Taneytown’s parks and recreation department is asking for help identifying three suspects, two men and one woman, who were allegedly caught on camera vandalizing the skate park at Taneytown High School Park on Halloween evening, according to a Facebook post from the department.
“Vandalism is an ongoing concern for us,” City Manager James Wieprecht said, “but there has been something of a spike recently.”
Photos from security camera footage posted online depict one suspect wearing green, another suspect clad in all black, while the third suspect appears to be wearing light-colored pants, a dark shirt, and a white hat. They were captured on camera just at after 8 p.m., Oct. 31, according to the post. Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact Taneytown police or the parks and recreation department.
Pavilions at Memorial Park (West Baltimore Street/Route 140 at Park Drive), play equipment at Roth Avenue Park (on Roth Avenue across from Chestnut Court), and the skate park (219 Roberts Mill Road) have each been targeted recently, according to the post. Most of the vandalism is graffiti.
The city spent about $195,000 upgrading the park in spring 2023, with a BMX cycling pump track, stairs, rails, two quarter pipes, and updated signage included.
“We can’t have somebody sitting in all of the parks 24/7 to keep an eye on things,” Wieprecht said. “We have expanded our our camera networks in the parks to try to capture any nefarious activities that might occur, but there’s hundreds of acres of parks, and not that many cameras, so we can’t have eyes on everything all the time. It certainly is a concern for us.”
Vandalism cleanup is taxpayer-funded, and Taneytown Parks and Recreation plans to seek restitution from those who did the damage, according to the department.
“While we can try to increase our police presence around the parks and do more frequent patrols, it’s a challenge,” Wieprecht said. “It’s been a challenge for all the years that I’ve been involved with the city.”
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