Taggers spray, parents pay - With graffiti vandalism on the rise, L.A. County officials seek ways to hold the offenders' guardians more accountable.

Sheriff Lee Baca said Friday that he wants to implement two programs to address the rising level of tagging.

The first would require parents of teenagers arrested for tagging to talk to deputies at the jail about the consequences of graffiti. He said such meetings would result in a "higher level of shame" for parents, who either allow their children to tag or can't control them.

The second would establish a hotline for parents to call if they suspect their children are tagging.

At the same time, Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina has proposed creating a special "graffiti administrative hearing panel" to more swiftly deal with vandalism cases that would otherwise be drawn out in the court system.

The panel would deal exclusively with graffiti vandalism, establishing fines for parents whose children repeatedly tag and billing them for cleanup costs. The panel would deal with civil penalties only; taggers could still face criminal cases in Superior Court.

Punishments determined by the civil panel could be on top of or commensurate with the criminal court depending on the circumstances of the case.

"I've never met a gang banger or tagger that's homeless. They all live somewhere and with someone," Baca said, who supports the graffiti panel idea. "The parents are not being held accountable."

The moves come as the California Department of Transportation and county officials report major increases in tagging this year. Caltrans has painted over several iconic murals on freeway walls because they were repeatedly hit.

And two women -- one in Pico Rivera and one in Victorville -- were fatally shot after confronting taggers.

Caltrans last year spent about $5 million on graffiti removal in Los Angeles and Ventura counties alone.

"Caltrans does not have a budget for graffiti, so this money is taken from our maintenance funding, which could be much better spent on other maintenance," Caltrans spokeswoman Jeanne Bonfilio said. "Caltrans workers put their lives on the line every day removing graffiti."

Reported graffiti incidents in areas patrolled by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department rose from 2,083 in 2002 to 4,274 in 2006 -- a record likely to be broken this year. Countywide, officials spent up to $30 million on graffiti removal and tagging suppression efforts in 2006.