SANTA ROSA — Graffiti tends to tick people off, but for John Rose it goes much deeper.
The Aussie bird-dogs it everywhere his eyes land — on soundwalls, traffic signs, the side of a building far across a shopping center parking lot.
"I cannot go anywhere without seeing graffiti. It's an illness. It's incurable," he said. "I hate graffiti with a vengeance. I'll do anything to get rid of this waste of time and blight that's devaluing our properties."
Rose gladly shares his angry passion, not to mention his foolproof three-step process to get rid of it — modestly named "World's Best Graffiti Removal System."
Which is why he joined dozens of anti-graffiti arms merchants this week at a hotel conference center where 300 officials from California and beyond shared strategies on a problem they say is growing in many cities, with potentially violent consequences.
Among them were police or city officials from across the East Bay, including Antioch, Richmond, Union City and Alameda County.
The two-day conference showcased some notably sophisticated, and in some cases chemically potent, approaches to graffiti and etching in window glass. Aggressive agencies are deploying GPS tracking systems, cameras triggered by motion sensors, and spray-on coatings to make graffiti removal easier.
In some areas, including Southern California, enforcement sweeps have led to jail time and prison sentences as high as two
years for persistent "taggers."
Under the "broken window theory" of crime prevention, swiftly erasing eyesores such as graffiti discourages more of it and removes what some criminals view as an invitation for more serious trouble in a neighborhood.
"If you leave it up, you're giving up," said Fresno police Sgt. Todd Miller. He and others said the stakes have grown. Tagging, or spray-painting an identifying mark, can often prompt violent clashes, they said. Miller credited graffiti as the spark for two murders and a stabbing in his city in the past month.
Deputies in an Alameda County Sheriff's Office anti-graffiti program agreed, though they had not linked murders to graffiti. "We can attribute violent crime to graffiti. It's all territorial. They're marking spots," said Deputy Paul Liskey. "It increases tensions."
Liskey said it takes coordination among agencies and neighbors, but budget woes have hampered the county's ability to quickly remove graffiti.
Experts say gangs spray just a small fraction of graffiti, and more often it's individual "wannabe" taggers or "street teams" that may later morph into gangs. One police officer called a seeming lack of options for kids the biggest indicator in cities where the problem is rising.
"They're looking for fame, for recognition," said Kenneth Davis, a graffiti and gang specialist in Yonkers, N.Y. "That's a flag there's something going wrong in the household."
Richmond recently launched an anti-graffiti initiative, adding removal crews and enlisting residents across the city. The problem is particularly nettlesome in the city's Iron Triangle, Coronado and Belding Woods neighborhoods, said Trina Jackson, who coordinates the new program.
Jackson said she arrived at the conference anxious to hear how other cities use restitution — forcing taggers to pay for the damage — as a deterrent. "If the kids know they'll be penalized, that'll make a difference," she said. "Right now, they're getting away with it."
Part of the battle, experts said, is commitment from city officials, prosecutors, judges and community members. Some tread lightly because the taggers are juveniles, the crime seems relatively light and because, in some cases, they don't want to be seen as stifling the creativity of some young graffiti artists.
In Union City, Wayne Cruz fights a never ending battle. As the city's lone "graffiti buster," he drives around in a 16-foot trailer from 7 a.m. until 3 p.m. each day, color-matching paint and covering up graffiti.
Sprays and surveillance can help, said Cruz, but there's nothing like meeting taggers and letting them know the deal: They spray, he takes away.
"I have an 800 number (for graffiti reports)," he said. "Taggers are actually calling now, saying 'Hey, someone tagged my wall.'"
Suspect Arrested. 
GLENDALE, Ariz. – Officers from a Glendale Police Neighborhood Response Squad located and arrested their “most wanted” graffiti vandal yesterday. They arrested him for drug possession charges, but plan to submit 14 cases of Criminal Damage against him for the graffiti incidents.
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