Corona's anti-graffiti effort nets 16 arrests in a month
10:00 PM PST on Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Using a graffiti-tracking system and a three-week enforcement blitz, Corona police have made a string of arrests they believe will help wipe out a nagging problem in the city.
Graffiti has been one of the most visible and complained-about crime issues in Corona in recent years.
But city police say several anti-graffiti initiatives are starting to bear fruit.
In about a month, Corona police have made 16 graffiti-related arrests, including eight of the city's top 10 taggers, police said.
Those 16 people are believed to be responsible for at least 1,028 acts of vandalism that caused an estimated $16,126 in damage.
Corona police Detective Bob Newman said that in the past, motorists on Main Street would see graffiti on every light pole.
A concerted enforcement effort involving police, public works and parks employees has changed that, he said.
"If you drive the 91 freeway within the last three weeks, you'd see that there isn't any paint on walls that (previously) have been hit really hard," Newman said.
The city's major anti-graffiti effort began 2008, in part as a response to a change in the nature of the problem.
Three to five years ago, Newman said, most graffiti in Corona was gang-related -- marking territory.
Since then it has shifted toward tagging -- self-expression or art.
Many taggers are young and hope to become famous, Newman said.
"They want to be artists," he said. "They want to get their name out there within the graffiti world, so that's what they turn to."
But to city officials and homeowners, tagging is vandalism.
The city offers rewards for tips that lead to graffiti arrests.
Park rangers started a program using volunteers to watch city parks, frequent targets of taggers.
Police say what may have made the biggest difference is a Web-based graffiti-tracking system that can compile and show all instances of graffiti associated with a particular tag and where they occurred.
That allows police to hold taggers accountable for many more incidents, Newman said.
"We're hitting them with not just one or five, we're hitting them with 183 (tags) that we've found with this graffiti tracker," he said.
Another weapon used during the recent enforcement blitz was Corona police Officer Gary Griffitts, who worked with gang detectives for several weeks because of his special interest in graffiti crimes.
It's too early for statistical results, but Griffitts said he thinks graffiti probably has decreased in Corona in the past month.
"I feel like it's making a difference," he said. "That's my job -- hopefully you can keep some of those kids from doing it again."
Bobby Spiegel, president of Congregation Beth Shalom and the Corona Chamber of Commerce, already has felt the impact of the enforcement push.
Someone tagged Congregation Beth Shalom's new building, which is nearly completed.
Police said the tagger responsible for that vandalism was one of those recently arrested.
"They were pretty ingenious about how they were able to capture the person," Spiegel said. "Graffiti over the last six months has been cleaned up tremendously."
Police are proud of their success, but they said graffiti requires constant vigilance.
They're also turning their attention to recovering the cost of the damage through restitution.
"What the kids need to know," said Corona police Sgt. Kurt Yinger, "is that we're not going to tolerate it and their parents are going to pay for it."
Reach Alicia Robinson at 
951-36...
or arobinson@PE.com
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