By Jake Finch, Correspondent
June 27, 2004

During a report given June 7 to the Simi Valley City Council on the effectiveness of the graffiti abatement program, Councilman Glen Becerra offered up the graffiti hotline number -- from his cell phone's speed dial.

It's a number he uses whenever he spies the rebel markings of a tagger on a Simi Valley wall or building.

"My kids have even pointed out graffiti and asked me to call it in," said Becerra, who credits the 11-year-old program with an 85 percent decrease in graffiti incidents throughout the city since it began.

At its high point in 1993, when the program and hotline were instituted, 4,038 graffiti incidents were logged by city workers. Last year, 674 incidents were reported, said Dennis LaChine of the city Public Works Department.

The city is committed to removing graffiti within 24 hours of a report, City Manager Mike Sedell said.

That commitment, said Sgt. Roy Jones of the Police Department's special problems section, is the key to keeping graffiti wars from starting. Enforcement would not be enough to control the problem, he said.

"It has been proven that quick and immediate removal discourages more graffiti activity," Jones said. "They're looking for people to admire their work. They don't get the benefit from seeing their work up for some time. It is definitely a cause and effect."

A common mistake people make about graffiti artists is assuming they are gang members. Most often, that's not true, Jones said.

"The largest numbers have nothing to do with gangs," he said. "In 2003, tagger graffiti -- non-gang related -- was three times greater than gang graffiti," he said.

Instead, think of the typical graffiti offenders as young, artistic and rebellious who "express themselves in an inappropriate way," Jones said.

Because of that, Jones' gang detail and school resource officers work closely with the Public Works Department by collecting all the graffiti reports around the city. The information can be used to pinpoint local gang activity or to coordinate with the school resource officers who might come across an offender on campus.

One tagger suspected of dozens of graffiti incidents around the city was caught that way, Jones said. A school resource officer saw similar art and symbols on the books and around the locker of a Royal High School student and confronted the boy, who confessed.

"We arrested the young man for graffiti and cleared 40 to 45 graffiti cases throughout the city," he said. "With a juvenile, we may clear as many as that if not more."

A few years back, homes and businesses were hit during the night with more than a dozen graffiti assaults in a one-mile radius of central Simi Valley. These graffiti "bombings" happen occasionally, but infrequently, Jones said.

"There are tagger crews in our city. What they are really is a group of friends, and they band together around a common interest," he said, explaining that the bombings may stem from an initiation or dare.

While the numbers are far better than they were before the abatement program started, there is some fluctuation from year to year. By June 1 this year, 736 graffiti incidents were reported, with 187 related to gang activity. The average for the last five years is around 1,000 per year.

"I always want the numbers to be better," Jones said. "I think our city has done an excellent job."

-- Jake Finch's e-mail address is alljake@hotmail.com.