Task Force Helps Police Get Tagger

A 16-year-old Reseda boy, accused of spray-painting his graffiti name on hundreds of locations in the San Fernando Valley, was arrested Thursday as the first suspect snared by a new task force that uses volunteers to document graffiti vandalism.

The boy, whose identity was not revealed because he is a juvenile, used the tag name “DEN.” He was arrested at his home when police officers arrived with a search warrant based largely on evidence provided by members of the Community Tagger Task Force, Deputy Chief Mark A. Kroeker said.

At the home, police said, they found evidence linking the boy to the vandalism, including “DEN” marked on the home’s front curb and back door, on furniture and property in the boy’s bedroom, ranging from his hats and shoes to his deodorant.

The boy had even tagged trash found in the house. Detectives took down a wall hanging depicting the Seven Dwarfs and found the boy’s tag name covering the back.

“This kid is no Snow White,” Kroeker said. “He is a vandal.”

Police will seek felony vandalism charges today against the teen-ager, who is on probation for car theft. While the police were at the youth’s home, two other teen-agers suspected of being taggers arrived and were taken into custody. Police said they would also seek charges against them, police said.

Police and City Councilwoman Laura Chick used the arrests to tout the value of the task force, which has about 300 volunteers. The group subsists solely on donations to pay for film and other equipment.

At a news conference in front of a closed department store that had been tagged with “DEN” at least 25 times, Kroeker said the investigation and arrest are examples of a new way to attack the graffiti problem.

“This is the successful culmination of an investigation into a very active tagger,” Kroeker said.

Graffiti vandalism is a highly underreported crime, police said. Task force volunteers take photographs and make reports of graffiti in their neighborhoods--whether on their property or not--to reserve officers, who coordinate the information. Repeat taggers are referred to detectives, who attempt to identify them.

In the “DEN” case, task force members filed reports on 25 different vandalism incidents that occurred over the last two months. Damage from those incidents was estimated at $20,000. Police declined to reveal what linked the tag marks to the boy who was arrested, but said it was clear when they searched his house that they had the right person.

“He had tagged his own house,” said Detective Craig Rhudy, who heads the task force.

Rhudy said that when the boy was confronted with the evidence, he admitted he was “DEN.”

If convicted of responsibility in the 25 tagging incidents, the youth could receive a six-month sentence in a work camp, Rhudy said. But he said the incidents cited in the investigation area clearly are only a small part of the damage.

“We’re talking about hundreds and hundreds of tags with this kid,” Rhudy said. “You can go down Sherman Way and find his tag on every tree. . . . He was out bombing--putting his name wherever he could. He wanted to make a name for himself with other taggers.”

Police said the boy’s tag was often accompanied by the letters CTY or INF, which represent tagging crews he belonged to. The letters stand for Can’t Tell You and Insanity Never Fails.

Police said the boy is a school dropout who didn’t work and “lived to tag” at night. The boy’s parents told officers that they could not control him--a problem that Kroeker said could be at the root of a proliferation of graffiti in the Valley.

“We have a community that is sick and tired of having to go back and clean up after this sort of thing,” Kroeker said. “People are upset.”

Stephen Getzoff, an Encino accountant who is part of the task force, agreed.

“The reason we are doing this is that we just feel it is time to take our city back,” he said.