Crime and Graffiti: It’s Everyone’s Fight : Yes, Stiff Sentencing, Public Vigilance Are Working

Are we making a dent in the war on graffiti in Orange County? Stiff sentencing and vigilance by ordinary citizens do seem to be making a difference, which is heartening news.

One such case ranked up there in the annals of crime with incompetent bank robbers who write stickup notes on the back of deposit slips imprinted with their names, addresses and phone numbers. On Sept. 23, two Orange County sheriff’s deputies parked their patrol car and entered the Anaheim Independencia Community Center. The deputies, members of the sheriff’s gang enforcement team, delivered a lecture to residents fed up with gang problems that include drive-by shootings and rampant graffiti.

While the two were inside, Luis Armando Andrade etched the initials of his gang onto the patrol car and fled. What he did not know was that a video camera inside the car got a nice picture of him at work. Deputies identified Andrade, arrested him six days later and watched him plead guilty.

Municipal Judge Martin Hairabedian Jr. sentenced Andrade to 45 days in jail, plus three years’ probation. The judge suspended Andrade’s driver’s license for one year and ordered him to perform 100 hours of graffiti removal.

It was a fitting punishment, the kind of stiff penalty police say they are noticing more and more when graffiti scrawlers get sentenced in Municipal or Juvenile Court. The presiding judge of Juvenile Court, Francisco Briseno, said he noticed a decline in “tagging” cases. That’s something we badly need.

Tips from the public have also been a big help in fighting graffiti. For instance, Caltrans gets at least 70 telephone calls each month in Orange County, alerting it to scrawls on freeway signs. Here, too, there has been a heartening overall decline recently in the amount of graffiti that needed to be erased.

Police and other public agencies need and deserve citizen help in battling all varieties of crime, from graffiti to drive-by shootings. Two private industry group have recently launched worthwhile programs.

In one, two dozen real estate agents are planning to form a mobile Neighborhood Watch as they work their neighborhoods in Cypress, Buena Park and La Palma. Cypress police trained the agents, and the police chief endorsed the program. Chief Daryl Wicker wisely stressed that this is not a “vigilante group,” but scouts in cars who will alert police when they see something suspicious.

The second group, the Apartment Assn. of Orange County, has established a 24-hour hot line to let residents of apartments owned by association members report criminal activity without revealing their identities. An informant receives a coded identification from hot line operators, who screen calls and notify police. If the information results in prosecution, the caller gets a reward that can reach $1,000.

The hot line has the support of county supervisors and the district attorney. Apartment owners said that many residents do not report crimes they see on their doorsteps for fear of reprisals. That’s a real and valid fear, one that police work to overcome. In some gang cases, prosecutors have provided extra security for reluctant witnesses and their families.

Several cities have signed up for the apartment group’s new venture, which was announced at a Tustin neighborhood that has been the site of gang and drug activities. Tustin Police Capt. Fred Wakefield said police “need all the help we can get. We cannot do this job by ourselves.”

In fighting the battle against graffiti and crime, he is right.