Tagging: You're It

My neighbors and I in Anaheim enjoy a beautiful park next to our homes. This past week it hasn't been so beautiful.

One or more anti-Fourth of July revelers spray-painted the bathroom building with ugly orange and black graffiti.

As a reporter, I've written dozens of stories about graffiti. But I guess it has to happen to you before you understand the anger and sadness it creates.

This graffiti stood as a ghastly blight.

And, unfortunately, graffiti crime is back on the rise, says Det. Mark Garcia of the Huntington Beach Police Department, who specializes in youth crimes.

Though the nonprofit group Global Unity Against Vandalism reports a decrease in graffiti vandalism nationwide, many Orange County cities I called echoed Garcia. Most have graffiti removal crews operating daily.

"If you spot graffiti, report it to your city's graffiti hotline immediately," Garcia said. "But if you catch somebody in the act, call the police immediately."

A survey of cities throughout the county shows that most cities will remove graffiti within 24 hours, and almost all within 72 hours. Quick action is critical, they all agree.

"It's the start of the broken-window effect," said Richard La Rochelle, code enforcement director for the city of Anaheim.

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The "broken window" theory, made popular by UCLA political science professor James Q. Wilson, suggests that if you allow graffiti to stand, before long other blight begins to dot the neighborhood. That leads to complacency. Then down the road, good neighbors see it as hopeless and move away.

Wilson suggested in a recent magazine interview: "You have to avoid the first broken window, or all the windows will be broken. This means the police must take very seriously small signs of disorder, such as graffiti."

To keep neighborhoods free of crime, Wilson adds, it's important that neighbors first feel safe. And graffiti tears down that comfort zone of safety.

Graffiti vandals share a trait: They want to see their work stand for others to see, said Nilda Berndt, crime prevention officer at the Placentia Police Department.

"The sooner you take it down, and take it down repeatedly, the quicker they catch on that they might as well move on," she said.

That's why almost every city in Orange County--and county government itself--has an aggressive graffiti removal program. Some have other weapons for fighting graffiti taggers.