The Fight Against Crime: Notes From The Front : Tactical Team Taking Down Vandal Taggers

The California Highway Patrol is going after crime alongside San Fernando Valley freeways as well as on them.

The target: graffiti vandals.

Since January, a special tactical team of CHP and LAPD officers has been staking out vandal-prone walls, keeping watch in the dark and springing the trap when the first spray can is uncapped.

The team has conducted four operations in “an effort to do something about the graffiti problem in the San Fernando Valley,” said CHP Officer Steve Shenian, one of its organizers.

With help from the Community Taggers Task Force, a group of law enforcement personnel and community members established by the LAPD Van Nuys Division two years ago, the team has made 17 arrests, impounded three vehicles, recovered two firearms, confiscated numerous knives and seized various types of drugs and drug paraphernalia, said CHP Officer Dwight McDonald.

“Many people think that taggers are nothing more than kids with nothing to do,” he said. “But the underlying element is cold hard crime.”

Contrary to the notion that taggers are just idle youngsters with a twisted artistic penchant, Shenian said most arrested taggers are in their late teens or early 20s. Graffiti are a way of marking off territories where they commit more serious crimes, said Shenian’s partner, Randy Pickens.

Of the 17 arrested, six were also wanted on warrants for burglary, assault with a deadly weapon, robbery, attempted murder and prostitution, McDonald said.

The CHP estimates the damage caused by the 17 taggers arrested to be about $89,000, not to mention the aesthetic cost.

“It’s frustrating to be driving along and all of a sudden you see this ugly thing,” said Pickens.

The team also includes two men from the LAPD Van Nuys Division, Officer Jerry Beck and Det. Craig Rhudy--who has been fighting graffiti for about two years--and eight other specially-trained CHP officers.

The team employs intelligence on taggers gathered by the community task force, often from Valley residents who call attention to their neighborhoods, photograph graffiti and in some instances learn to fill out crime report forms for police, said Beck.

In some instances, the team is after specific, prolific taggers. Some taggers seek out highly visible overhead signs or prominent freeway walls for large murals and writing.

Shenian and Pickens prepare a report explaining in detail when and where the operation will be executed, how many officers and cars will be needed and how much it will cost.

Each of the four operations to date cost about $3,000, funded by the California Department of Transportation, which spends $3 million per year cleaning graffiti in Los Angeles County alone.

The report goes up the chain of command for approval by West Valley CHP Capt. Pete Mader and CHP Southern Division Chief Ed Gomez.

Although all four operations hauled in vandals, the team faces a big job, with graffiti still on the rise in the Valley, the officers say.

They recall a recent case in which they arrested a tagger and a few days later his distinctive “tag” started popping up again, with an addition which meant: “Guess who’s back?”

“We’ve only scratched the surface,” Shenian said. “But we’re back, too.”