The 15-year-old boy who scrawled graffiti on the window of a bus carrying Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa made headlines because he was photographed in the act.
But the vast majority of taggers roam the streets with impunity -- prompting police and community leaders to fight back with new high-tech tools that go well beyond cans of paint and roller brushes.
In Los Angeles, cleanup crews removed 27 million square feet of graffiti last year, up from 21 million square feet in 2004, officials said. In other areas of Los Angeles County, 13 million square feet of walls and other surfaces were cleaned, up from 9 million the previous year, according to county public works records.
And officials are finding graffiti in new and unexpected places.
"My staff goes to Compton all the time, but now we're going to Malibu," said Valerie Hill, manager of the county Department of Public Works' graffiti abatement program. "There's a ton up in Altadena, the San Gabriel Valley area ... the Covinas, the Glendoras. We never saw that before."
Santa Clarita increased its cleanup efforts last fall in response to a surge in graffiti, while several Inland Empire communities have started offering rewards in hopes the public will turn taggers in. The city of Orange has seen a significant jump as well, with the cost of removing graffiti jumping nearly 40% over the last year, said Lyman Otley, Orange's building and facilities superintendent.
"In the last three or four months, it's been horrible," said Riverside City Councilman Ed Adkison. "I suspect it runs in cycles, and for whatever reason people are out tagging right now."
Why graffiti is on the rise is a mystery, although some police officials believe it is tied to a surge in gang-related crime over the last year.
"As the gang problem seems to be increasing, so does the gang graffiti," said Paul Racs, director of Los Angeles' Office of Community Beautification, adding that the city has seen surges in Venice, Pacific Palisades and other parts of the Westside. Much of the tagging is home-grown, from teens and tagging crews in these neighborhoods.
"These aren't kids that are coming from some other part of the city and coming out to the Palisades to tag," he said. "For the most part, people are staying in their own communities and tagging them up."
Whatever the reason, police are looking for new ways to attack the problem.
