Cities stamping out graffiti

Palm Springs,CA,USA

Officials find best response to problem is to quickly cover up work by ‘taggers’

 

By Christine Mahr
The Desert Sun
August 11th, 2004

You see it sprawled across signs, buildings and the brick walls surrounding neighborhoods and gate-guarded communities.

Sometimes it looks ominous; sometimes it appears almost artistic.

It may be gang-related but more often it’s artistic expression by "taggers" seeking notoriety.

Regardless of where it’s located or what form it takes, graffiti is an annoyance to desert communities and their residents.

To deal with it, most valley cities have set up hotlines and designated certain employees or departments to remove graffiti as soon as possible after it’s reported or noticed.

"A prompt covering of it is a discourager," said Mike Hatfield, Cathedral City fire marshal and division chief in charge of code enforcement.

"If not everybody sees it, it discourages the purpose of tagging," Hatfield said.

In that city, the fire department takes the hotline calls, handles graffiti removal on private property and refers to the public works department graffiti on public property.

If graffiti on private property is inaccessible, the fire department notifies the property owner to remove it, Hatfield said.

The city’s code enforcement division checks almost every morning for any graffiti that might not have been reported, Hatfield said.

The city of Indio in its 2004-05 budget included money for two full-time graffiti removal technicians to replace two part-time technician positions.

The city’s police department traditionally has been in charge of graffiti removal but this year it became a joint effort of that department and public works, said police Chief Brad Ramos.

"They do the removal and we do the investigation," Ramos said.

The police department has an investigator assigned full-time to graffiti abatement.

Before graffiti is removed, it’s photographed so Detective Chris Piscatella can try to determine who’s responsible for it, interview them and possibly arrest them.

Those responsible for graffiti can be prosecuted and they or --in the case of juveniles, their parents -- can be ordered by the courts to pay restitution. The restitution helps pay for graffiti cleanup costs, Piscatella said.

Some of the graffiti is gang-related but much of it is "tagging" done by individuals or groups trying to show off to other graffiti artists and gain notoriety, Piscatella said.

"Their intent is not to do damage but to show off their artistic talent," he said. "It’s unfortunate they have to do it that way."

Piscatella said there’s been a drop in graffiti in Indio and he attributes that to two things.

"The word is out they’re getting arrested so they’re not doing it as much as they used to," he said.

"They won’t stop unless you start hammering at them."

But also, the graffiti is getting removed faster, Piscatella said.

"The longer it’s kept up, the more notoriety they get," Piscatella said.

"If it’s left up, they think it’s not getting removed so they keep doing it."

Officials in other cities, including Desert Hot Springs, agree fast removal is key in the battle against graffiti.

Often the graffiti is triggered by rivalry between two groups so if nothing’s there, the other group won’t respond, said Roy Hill, Desert Hot Springs police chief and director of public safety.

In Desert Hot Springs, officials have taken a different approach to attacking the graffiti problem.

The city has contracted with the Boys and Girls Club of Desert Hot Springs for graffiti removal, Hill said.

Graffiti complaints are forwarded to the organization, which takes care of the removal using two staff members and sometimes older youths required to do community service for getting caught doing graffiti themselves.

"If they realize the work that goes into cleaning it up, it changes their thinking about graffiti," said Adam Sanchez, certified professional officer at the Boys and Girls Club.

DHS Councilwoman Mary Stephens said involving the Boys and Girls Club has turned out to be a positive way of dealing with graffiti.

"A community-oriented program always works better than what government can do itself," Stephens said. "And it teaches (youth) community pride."

The city of Palm Desert until recently had contracted with SunLine Services Group, a non-transit affiliate of SunLineTransit Agency, for graffiti removal.

But SunLine has cut back on non-transit services and the city, after exploring other options, now does its own graffiti removal through its maintenance services division, said Tom Bassler, maintenance services manager.

When graffiti is reported on the city’s graffiti hotline, department crews try to get it removed within 24 hours, Bassler said.

In that city, graffiti seems to be somewhat seasonal, picking up when school’s out, Bassler said.

It also tends to be more of a problem on weekends, he said.

The valley’s cities spend thousands of dollars a year on graffiti removal.

When Palm Desert contracted with SunLine for graffiti removal, it paid a flat monthly rate of about $5,800, Bassler said.

But officials like Bassler say spending money on cleaning up graffiti is a necessary evil.

"People see it in cities where it’s rampant and they don’t feel comfortable," Bassler said.

"It’s beneficial for cities to have an image where people don’t feel intimidated or threatened," he said.

While a lot of the graffiti is harmless rather than gang-related, most people still want it gone, Bassler said.