County’s War on Graffiti Making Its Mark : In Addition to Removal, Program Aims to Improve Efforts to Prosecute Vandals

It is refreshing at summer’s end to learn that all the news from the anti-graffiti front in recent months has not just been hot air. The nation’s radio talk shows turned themselves inside out over the incident of caning as a punishment in Singapore, and closer to home Assemblyman Mickey Conroy (R-Orange) got the Legislature stirring with his ultimately unsuccessful paddling bill.

But last month, the record for Orange County’s anti-graffiti program after a year in operation was reported, and it was an impressive one. The county’s Graffiti Abatement Program already has eradicated more than 800,000 square feet of graffiti, which amounts to a considerable swath of facade around the county. The county was able to report that it had removed graffiti on the average of 2.8 days after it was reported, with a goal of reducing the time eventually to one or two days.

In addition to removing graffiti, the program has aimed to improve coordinated efforts throughout the county, and to improve on efforts to prosecute those responsible. The worthwhile overall goal is to stop such vandalism from spreading on buildings, signs and walls.

One particularly worthwhile component of the program is to bring in people for the cleanup effort who are fulfilling court community service obligations. The program reports that more than 65 people completed nearly 5,000 community service hours painting over graffiti. We have suggested previously that an appropriate sentence for graffiti vandals is to put them to work applying their elbow grease to the task of removing graffiti. Here is one violation where restitution is easily designed so that the punishment fits the crime.

Unfortunately, the war on graffiti is not won easily. Accordingly, it is good that the county has agreed to spend $438,000 to continue the program. The Board of Supervisors is to be commended for its continuing commitment to this important work.