FULLERTON : Council to Consider Anti-Graffiti Law

The City Council tonight will consider passing an ordinance intended to decrease the amount of graffiti. The council will also invite public comment on the issue.

“We get more complaints right now on graffiti than anything,” said City Manager James L. Armstrong.

Calls to the city’s graffiti removal hot line have recently been pouring in. In 1990, the city received 480 calls from people who saw graffiti and wanted it removed. Last month, 605 people called the hot line.

“We don’t have enough resources to do it all,” Armstrong said.

Police have said graffiti is produced by two types of people: gang members who are marking their territory and “taggers” who are looking to spread their names and reputations.

“Taggers” write their names or nicknames wherever they can, according to police. “The taggers are indiscriminate,” Lt. Jeff Roop said. “They’re just vandals.”

In the last six months, Roop has seen an explosion of such writing. “It’s become a real fad in the local high schools,” he said. Roop said he thinks most graffiti is made by local people.

The proposed ordinance would ban graffiti that uses paint, markers or other writing tools as well as that made by scratches or etches in a surface. Violators could be fined up to $1,000 or sentenced to a maximum of six months in jail.

Minors would be forbidden to carry big felt-tip markers and spray paint onto public or private property, unless the owner had given them permission.

The city would offer a $500 reward to anyone whose information led to an arrest.

The Police Department has also asked for permission to spend $20,000 on video cameras for surveillance. The department is also considering hiring a handwriting specialist to help them identify “taggers.”

The city has two maintenance crews that try to clean up the graffiti, but Robert Savage, maintenance services director, said they can’t keep up.

Savage, Armstrong and police officials said residents and parents must band together to help repaint the city’s walls.

Part of the city’s new defense plan calls for an “Adopt-a-Neighborhood” program to organize residents. The city would supply paint to residents so they could clean up defaced walls.

Armstrong said business owners and residents are dismayed by the graffiti onslaught.

“It’s symbolic to them of the deterioration of the quality of life,” he said. “Everybody’s frustrated because no one knows what the answer is.”

The issue will be discussed at 7:30 p.m. in the council chambers at 303 W. Commonwealth Ave.