Technology to curb tagging

Gaetano Russo has been eliminating graffiti from the Costa Mesa cityscape for 18 years. Removing taggers’ markings with his sandblaster and pressure washer makes him happy.

“To me, it’s a challenge,” he said. “They put it in, and I’m going to take it down.”

Now, Russo loves his job even more. Two weeks ago, said the veteran city maintenance worker, the best thing in his 24-year career with the city happened: a new weapon in the fight against graffiti called the Tracking and Automated Graffiti Reporting System (TAGRS).

Costa Mesa officials say that the new system, a computer program developed by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, will revolutionize how the city attacks the graffiti problem by easily inputting and sharing information about graffiti with other cities and agencies. The sheriff has partnered with Costa Mesa to provide it with the system at no cost to the city.

TAGRS is a breakthrough, said Ramin Aminloo, the county official who developed the program, because it gives cities like Costa Mesa the ability to document the color, moniker, location of the graffiti, the cost of cleaning it up, and share it with other agencies in the region.

Instead of having to write everything down while out in the field and later logging in the office, Russo now uses a city-issued smart phone while out at the scene of a tagging to upload that information.

The data then are available to all law enforcement agencies that subscribe to the program, as they chase down gangs and vandals suspected of having tagged public walls and other surfaces.

Many cities in the county have adopted the program. The Los Angeles Police Department and other law enforcement agencies police departments in Los Angeles County also have adopted TAGRS, and San Bernardino and Riverside counties are moving toward signing up for it, too, Aminloo said.

In 2008, the program helped solve 151 graffiti cases in the county, and, so far in 2009, it has helped crack 134 cases, Aminloo said.

Before Costa Mesa started using the program this month, the city used a record management system that tracked acts of vandalism in general, and records dealing with graffiti were limited to incidents within the city limits.

The city budgeted almost $216,000 for its graffiti removal program this year, said Bruce Hartley, Costa Mesa’s maintenance services manager.

“This program is specific to graffiti. It provides us with a database to more effectively track graffiti vandalism,” said Costa Mesa Police Officer Jason Chamness.

The new program also is more effective, Aminloo said, because it allows cities to share information on acts of graffiti.

“These days, we have to share data; we can’t work on our own,” he said. “If I have the guy Costa Mesa is looking for, or vice versa, why shouldn’t Costa Mesa know about it?”

How To Help

To report graffiti in Costa Mesa, call (714) 327-7491.