Grappling with graffiti 

By Jennifer Barrett 
The Arizona Republic 
March 11, 1998 

Michael Ging/The Arizona Republic
Glendale's "Graffiti Busters" spend their days repairing the damage vandals have done. 

Joey took up "tagging" three years ago. 
He was 11. 

"A couple friends did it. They were 16. Because I like writing on paper, you know, they said I should try it on a wall," he said. "I tried and I liked it. I never stopped." 

Joey, which is not his real name, had left his "tag" - usually just initials or his nickname - painted on highway overpasses, utility boxes and almost any empty space he could find in his south Glendale neighborhood. 

He shrugged when told that Glendale stores are going to lock up the aerosol paint cans and broad-tip markers he uses and that the city is making it illegal for him or anyone else younger than 18 to buy them. 

"I'll still get ahold of the cans," he said. 

The ordinance, passed unanimously by City Council members in late February, requires businesses to keep spray paint and other materials commonly used by graffiti vandals out of reach. 

Minors may not possess spray paint or similar materials unless they are used for legal activities sponsored and/or supervised by a parent, legal guardian, employer or teacher. Offenders may be fined and, if they are adults, jailed. 

Joey is only 14, but he said he hangs around with taggers as old as 22 who can buy the paint for him. A 12-year-old friend, who said he's been a tagger for two years, can name at least three friends over 18. 

"It (the ordinance) won't make a difference with us," he said. 

City officials and anti-graffiti activists from around the Valley disagree. Similar anti-graffiti ordinances have been passed in Phoenix, Tempe, Gilbert and Tolleson. 

"It's really made a difference in the community," said Tolleson Police Chief Rick Patscheider, where the ordinance was adopted in June 1996. "It actually dropped off to the point where we weren't getting any graffiti." 

He was surprised recently when reports of graffiti started coming in again until he learned that a local store had new management unaware of the ordinance. He hand-delivered a copy of the ordinance, and the store has now ordered lockable cabinets. 

"I would attribute the rise (in graffiti) to that one store," said Patscheider, who predicts that the recent amount of graffiti will again subside. 

Xavier Brizar, community relations director at Pioneer Ford in west Phoenix and coordinator of an anti-graffiti program sponsored by his car dealership, said the amount of graffiti in Tolleson and parts of Phoenix is drastically lower than in cities that do not have an ordinance. 

"It's like night and day," Brizar said. 

Still, it's hard to keep up with taggers. In four years, Pioneer has gone through 52,000 gallons of paint, added 200,000 miles to its trucks and spent about $700,000 removing graffiti all over the West Valley, Brizar said. The program has become so costly that the company had to scale back from a team of painters to one full-time painter and one truck. 

Glendale allocates an average of $100,000 a year to a program it calls Graffiti Busters, program supervisor Brian Wetzel said. One full-time and one part-time painter go through 400 gallons of paint a month. As many as 70 reports of graffiti come in in a day. 

In 1997, the Graffiti Busters removed or painted over 6,441 graffiti "tags," compared with just 2,500 in all of 1996. Wetzel hopes the new ordinance will ease the load, as well as the cost, of graffiti removal. 

In addition to making it harder for vandals to get the markers and paint cans, the ordinance allows the city to send a notice of violation to private property owners requiring them to get rid of the graffiti within seven days and to pay the costs if the city removes it. 

The Graffiti Busters have tried to remove almost any graffiti they spot unless the property is inaccessible or they are unable to get permission from the private property owners. Wetzel said the city has been absorbing almost all of the costs. 

If the graffiti vandals are caught, sometimes the city or property owner might be able to get restitution. That hasn't always happened. 

Officer Matt Brown, a Glendale police spokesman, acknowledges that punishment has been lax on occasion. He's hoping that will change now that the ordinance is in place. 

The ordinance specifies penalties for graffiti offenders, ranging from 48 hours of community service to jail time and fines of more than $500 for graffiti offenses. The last section adds that judges shall not suspend any part or all of the punishment outlined in the ordinance. 

"We're hoping it will put some teeth into the law as far as the punishment fitting the crime," Brown said. "It'll make them (offenders) think before they act now." 

Joey, the teenage graffiti vandal, is awaiting an appearance in court for a recent offense. He said he "came clean" and admitted responsibility for a wave of graffiti he left under a variety of nicknames throughout Glendale. Now that he knows he likely will get fined and forced into community service, he said, his tagging career may be over. 

"Well, I'd have second thoughts," he said. "It (tagging) gives you a rush, but if you get caught, you'll pay the price."