Going After Graffiti : Making a Difference : One City’s Approach: Volunteer Squads

Since 1990, Anaheim’s volunteer-based anti-graffiti program has removed nearly 2.5 million square feet of graffiti at an average annual cost of only $186,750--7.5 cents per square foot.

Anaheim city officals estimate that within its 45 square miles there are about 800 gang members, 40 gangs and hundreds of taggers who are responsible for graffiti throughout the city. Commercial graffiti eradication services would have cost the city an estimated half-million dollars a year. With a volunteer-based program, Anaheim, unlike other communities, can afford to maintain and develop its aggressive graffiti abatement services without worrying about cutting services because of diminishing city revenues.

GRAFFITI ABATEMENT STRATEGY

Strengthen city ordinances and assign personnel as necessary to allow graffiti removal to occur unhampered. Get city and law-enforcement officials to commit to fast response and tough penalties for offenders. Make merchants aware of their responsibility for graffiti abatement and coordinate removal efforts with them.

Cultivate program support and consensus from law enforcement and social service agencies, local schools, business and community leaders on the tactics to be used. Issues that Anaheim had to settle included: how to centralize graffiti removal services that were dispersed throughout city deparments and what city department would work with volunteers.

Generate publicity and develop volunteer network s. Anaheim contracts with public relations expert to coordinate and promote the city’s abatement programs. This person also identifies volunteer sources, including youth job programs, court-ordered offenders and local nonprofit groups.

GRAFFITI ABATEMENT TACTICS

Education

Provide free speakers and videos for students and citizen groups to promote graffiti abatement program and to discuss laws, enforcement and peer pressure. Anaheim’s school program targets fourth, fifth and sixth graders.

Enforcement

Offer rewards up to $500 for reports that lead to arrest and conviction of offenders.

Provide a 24-hour bilingual hotline to report graffiti-marred locations. Anaheim’s hotline receives an average of 85 calls each week.

Community Action

Establish a paint bank to supply free paint, brushes and roller covers to paint out graffiti.

Schedule “paint outs” regularly. Anaheim schedules three-hour paint-outs twice each month for volunteer work parties. The city also sponsors additional paint-outs as needed for residents and business owners whose property has graffiti.

Develop an Adopt-a-Block program . Concentrate efforts by encouraging neighbors, students, religious organizations, club or business members to remove graffiti and litter for a minimum of three months in a particular area in the city. Provide organizational help and supplies, including paint bank materials, Adopt-a-Block T-shirts and pins.

Provide a hotline to call for information and access to the paint bank, paint-outs, and Adopt-a-Block program.

“There were people concerned about graffiti, upset about graffiti. Some people were pointing their fingers, pointing downtown to city hall, but to solve the problem everyone has to be a part of the solution. It’s not just nameless, faceless police officers and officials. And so we turned the energy into activism.

“People given the opportunity to do something positive will choose that--if there are gangs, if there is crime, if somebody’s car is stolen, what can you do individually? With this graffiti program you can take an active step. When you get people tied into the city this way it just blossoms out--when we get more volunteers than we need we refer them to other programs.

“When people call about graffiti they get a response and something happens. That’s encouraging. And they see that they’re part of something bigger. It gets a momentum of its own.”-- Caolyn Griebe, Coordinator, Wipe Out Graffiti program.