The D.A.’s office also is looking at new legislation that would allow individuals to be prosecuted based on the aggregate damage they have done, Moore said. For example, the side of a building would have a higher value than a light pole. The D.A.’s office also is trying to provide better guidelines for police officers to determine the value of property damaged by graffiti, by taking into consideration factors such as the materials used and what item has been damaged. Now, damage of $1,000 or more is a felony, and anything under $400 is a misdemeanor.ĭamage that falls in between could go either way. Until recently, the felony limit was $2,500, and anything under that amount was considered a misdemeanor, Moore said. Previously, police officers had received conflicting information as to what level constituted a misdemeanor versus a felony. The office has lowered the threshold of monetary damage needed to file felony graffiti charges. Hoping a graffiti crackdown might also help reduce other types of crimes, prosecutors are stepping up enforcement, said Janet Moore, director of central operations for the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office. In other areas of Los Angeles County, 13 million square feet of walls and other surfaces were cleaned, 4 million more than in the previous year, according to county public works records. Los Angeles cleanup crews removed 27 million square feet of graffiti last year, up from 21 million square feet in 2005, officials said. a few years ago, vandals repeatedly hit them during construction. When sound walls were built along the 60 Freeway in East L.A.
Earlier this year, one sign on the Hollywood Freeway was fully covered by graffiti for weeks.Īs local governments build more freeway sound walls, they become favorite targets as well. Still, many signs remain a favorite target. More recently, the razor wire was replaced by more than 1,000 “vandal baffles,” green metal frames around the signs that make them harder to tag. It reduced tagging but prompted criticism over the aesthetics. During the early 1990s, it reached a zenith, with tagger crews staging “wars” to see how quickly they could mark up freeways.Ĭaltrans responded by placing razor wire around freeway signs. They each face 14 felony counts of graffiti vandalism.įreeway vandalism has been an issue across Southern California for nearly two decades. They were arrested in San Bernardino, but L.A. Two L.A.-area taggers using the monikers “Wishm” and “Meek” were arrested during a sting last month in the downtown area.Īuthorities allege that over the last four years, the man and woman vandalized downtown freeways and murals and left their names on graffiti in San Francisco and San Bernardino County.
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