Graffiti penalties could get tougher
SUSAN VOYLES
RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
Posted: 9/19/2006


Local government officials plan to urge the state Legislature to pass tougher anti-graffiti laws next year to go after the vandals.

The Reno City Council wants a state law requiring judges to take driver's licenses from convicted taggers and graffiti vandals and to impound their cars for 30 days.

The Sparks City Council wants to impose an extra 200 hours of community service on first-time offenders, a total of 250 hours. After a first offense, community service time would rise to 500 hours versus 100 hours currently.

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department wants to lower the property damage threshold to classify graffiti as felony from $5,000 to $400. Reno is using one of only four bill drafts allotted under state law for its graffiti bill. Sparks is using its only bill draft and the same for Las Vegas Metro police.

"I think these bill drafts tell us what a huge problem it is," said Assemblywoman Debbie Smith, D-Sparks.

"Truly, all we have to do is look around our community. It's pervasive in neighborhoods where we would not see it before," she said. "And it's much more daring, up on the overpasses."

Last year, Reno received 2,595 graffiti reports and spent $487,860 to remove the tagging. Sparks spent $72,925 on removal after 965 reports.

To draw attention to the problem, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman half-jokingly called for slicing off the thumbs of offenders or putting offenders in stocks in the town square.

But given these bill requests from local officials, Assembly Judiciary Committee chairman Bernie Anderson, D-Sparks, said he expects one or two graffiti bills to emerge from the Legislature next year.

"Obviously, we will have to deal with the question," he said.

While the proposed local bills seem straightforward, Anderson said they raise complex issues.

"It's very much an onion thing," he said.

Making more graffiti crimes into felonies could result in considerable state expense, including creating more district court judge positions and overloading state prisons, Anderson said.

He said he'd expect to hear from civil libertarians wanting the punishment to fit the crime. Young people will defend their rights to free expression, judges will want discretion over the handling of their cases and property owners will talk of their frustrations, he said.

Anderson said legislators also will weigh whether local governments and judges use the tools they already have. He wants statistics rather than anecdotes from judges on sentencing.

"The complaints from police is they only give them a slap on the wrist," he said.

Smith said she'd support taking away driving privileges for juveniles but would oppose the same for adults.

"I don't want to keep people from going to jobs and being productive," she said.

Modeled after an Arizona law, the bill calls for teenagers convicted of graffiti to automatically lose their driver's licenses until age 18. Adults could lose their licenses for six months to two years.

Current law gives judges the option of taking away adult licenses for 90 days to six months and revoking juveniles' licenses.

"We want to get their attention," said Reno Councilman Dwight Dortch, who asked for the bill draft. "In the past, we gave them a slap on the wrist."

Tim Boling, Phoenix neighborhood services department director, said taking away the licenses of juvenile graffiti offenders is a deterrent.

But how much is hard to judge, he said, because of the rapid growth in Arizona.

"But even if it deters 2 percent, that's better than none at all," Boling said.

"Quite honestly, a lot of the vandals live in low- and moderate-income areas," he said. "A lot of kids don't get licenses anyway. They can't afford the insurance or a vehicle to drive."