Task Force Launches Graffiti Crackdown : Vandalism: County will push for stiffer penalties for taggers. New law makes it more difficult to buy markers, spray paint.

Armed with new ordinances, penalties and programs, a dozen county officials stood beside a graffiti-scarred residential fence Tuesday and promised to open a new front in the county’s costly war on graffiti.

Led by Orange County Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez, the task force that included leaders from law enforcement, courts and schools promised to punish the youths who create the vandalism known as tagging.

“We’re not going to tolerate it here, it’s as simple as that,” Vasquez said of the explosion of graffiti that are projected to cost the county $4 million in cleanup costs this year. “It’s expensive, it’s unsightly and, for me, it shows the ultimate contempt for someone’s property.”

Just a few hours earlier, the supervisors had adopted a task force recommendation, passing an ordinance that will require merchants in unincorporated areas to put spray paint and ink markers behind store counters beginning Aug. 30. State law already bans the sale of spray paint to minors.

The supervisors also adopted a measure, effective immediately, that allows county crews to venture onto private property in unincorporated areas to clean up the illegal scrawls.

The county ordinances mirror steps taken by cities throughout the county and serve to “fill in enforcement gaps,” said Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi. The effort is also an attempt to bring uniformity and consistency to the battle against graffiti, Vasquez said.

Just a day earlier, the Newport Beach City Council gave final approval to that city’s first anti-graffiti ordinance, which makes it illegal for people 18 and under to buy or possess spray paint, ink markers and etching tools.

In addition, minors and adults will be prohibited from possessing those items in public places, such as parks, beaches and public swimming pools. The ordinance is similar to laws adopted in more than a dozen Orange County cities over the past year.

The Newport Beach ordinance also requires retailers to keep spray paints and ink markers in locked display cases and makes it illegal to sell “graffiti implements” to minors.

Under the law, property owners must remove all graffiti from their property within 48 hours, or pay the costs of having them removed by city workers or contractors.

The graffiti task force also announced that the county will lobby state lawmakers to enact stiffer penalties for the vandalism by making cases involving damage of $400 or more a felony. The current level is $5,000.

The county also wants the Legislature to ban the sale of other graffiti implements, such as markers, to minors. The package seeks authority for public agencies to collect as much as $20,000 to pay for damages from convicted minors and their parents.

In an effort to involve the private sector, the task force has enlisted PacTel Cellular to create a toll-free hot line to encourage motorists to report tagging they witness, improving the chances of catching the vandals.

While education efforts may be the best long-term approach to reduce tagging, which increased as much as threefold in late 1992, Juvenile Court Presiding Judge Francisco P. Briseno said stiffer penalties are most effective in the short term.

As a busload of convicted taggers sentenced to cleanup duty began to paint the tag-covered wooden fence behind the home of Ralph Gonzales, Briseno stood among other task force members and praised the deterrent provided by punishments such as driver’s license suspension.

“That’s a real eye-opener if you’re a teen-ager,” Briseno said. “These kids are more likely to listen to their contemporaries than any adult, and if they hear that when you get caught nothing happens, then there’s no way we’re going to be able to stop graffiti.”

To ensure that word reaches the tagger community, the district attorney’s office in February adopted a set of uniform penalties that prosecutors seek in first-infraction graffiti cases, including three years of probation and a one-year suspension of driving privileges.

Briseno said those measures--along with the minimum 20 days of cleanup duty, victim restitution costs and $650 in fines that accompany convictions--may have contributed to a recent decrease in tagging cases.

The number of graffiti cases in juvenile court increased from 95 in March to 232 in April, but then dipped to 146 in May, the district attorney’s records show. There were 126 cases through June 25 of this month.

“It’s hard to say what caused that and whether it means there was less tagging or just fewer taggers caught, but I’m optimistic,” Briseno said. He said making parents liable for the costs of their children’s vandalism will also go a long way toward stifling the trend.

Still, to Joe Rios, 16, a neighborhood resident who watched the news conference on his typically quiet corner, the efforts of police and politicians hold little meaning to taggers.

“I know a lot of guys who do it, and they don’t get caught,” Rios said. “The ones who do the most stuff are the ones who know how not to get caught.”

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Graffiti Hit List

The county’s Graffiti Task Force Tuesday detailed actions that have been adopted to curb the dramatic increase in graffiti, and called for additional measures. Among the specifics: * Restricted paint sales: The Board of Supervisors Tuesday ordered stores in unincorporated areas to keep spray paint behind counter areas beginning Aug. 30. State law already bans the sale of spray paint to minors. Also, county cleanup crews will immediately be allowed to paint out graffiti on private property in unincorporated areas. * Tougher penalties: The county will push for a state legislative package that would lower the vandalism damage amount--from $5,000 to $400--that draws a felony prosecution. The county will also ask for a state law allowing public agencies to collect up to $20,000 in graffiti-damage costs from parents of convicted taggers. * First offenders: The district attorney’s office has adopted a uniform list of penalties for first-time offenders--including 20 days of cleanup duty, $650 in fines and driver’s license suspension--that prosecutors will request upon conviction. * Education: The Orange County Department of Education has prepared a fact sheet in four languages on the stiffer penalties. The information will be distributed in schools. * Hot line: PacTel Cellular plans to offer a toll-free hot line for reporting graffiti vandals.

Source: Orange County Graffiti Task Force