Lawmaker says bill would help control graffiti in Arizona communities
Photos Available (thumbnails, captions below)
By MICHELLE PRICE
Cronkite News Service
CASA GRANDE (Monday, Feb. 9) _ This city’s graffiti problem shows on a neighborhood wall covered top to bottom with giant black lettering. And a “NO OUTLET” sign that has said “NO U LET” since someone defaced it with blue spray paint. And an empty building sprayed with indecipherable letters.
Wendy Edwards, a volunteer who coordinates Casa Grande’s graffiti-abatement program, said there’s no way the adult and juvenile probation crews assigned to clean up the vandalism twice a week can possibly keep up.
“We could probably paint every day in this town,” she said.
Responding to graffiti problems in his Phoenix district, Democratic Rep. Chad Campbell has introduced legislation that he said would help Arizona communities by making it illegal for minors to possess spray paint, fat-tipped markers and other items used to create graffiti.
“If you go out there, you will see graffiti everywhere,” Campbell said about the areas of west and central Phoenix he represents. “It’s just a plague on our community. Period.”
HB 2138 would make it a petty offense for those under 18 to possess items that can be used for graffiti. It carries exceptions for minors under the immediate supervision of a parent, guardian, teacher or other legally responsible adult and for minors who have those items as part of their jobs.
Campbell said the legislation would help because communities have different rules, or no rules, when it comes to minors possessing graffiti tools. Phoenix, for example, bars minors from having graffiti tools on public property, while a Bullhead City ban applies to public and private property.
Campbell’s bill would apply to public and private property.
“The point of this bill is to make it uniform across the state and help law enforcement out,” Campbell, the House minority whip, said in a telephone interview.
The bill was assigned to the House Judiciary Committee but has yet to be scheduled for action.
The League of Arizona Cities and Towns, which advocates for municipalities, is watching Campbell’s bill but has yet to take an official position, said Dale Wiebusch, a legislative associate for the group.
“We are in favor of any bill that makes graffiti a crime and less accessible to people,” he said in a telephone interview.
Campbell sponsored similar legislation last session, but it didn’t make it out of committee. He helped sponsor another 2008 bill, which became law, that allows courts to punish parents of minors convicted of graffiti if the parents were aware of or supplied the tools for the vandalism.
In Bullhead City, a 2006 ordinance barring minors from having graffiti tools has given law enforcement another tool, Chief of Police Rodney Head said.
“Having the ability to look for those things and for it to be illegal to possess posses those tools certainly helps,” he said in a telephone interview.
A single incident of graffiti costs Bullhead City around $450 to $500, he said.
Commander Mike Keck with the Casa Grande Police Department said Campbell’s bill would help combat the city’s graffiti, most of which is made by people under 18. However, he said he wouldn’t expect it to deliver an overnight miracle.
“I don’t think it’s any stretch of the imagination to think it wouldn’t disappear completely,” Keck said.
Graffiti in Casa Grande has paralleled the city’s growth in recent years. Keck estimated that graffiti complaints have increased from a couple dozen a year to a several hundred, but he added that the city does a good job of cleaning it up quickly.
Edwards, the city’s graffiti-abatement coordinator, said the quick cleanups aren’t doing a whole lot to dissuade offenders.
“You can tell they think it’s a game,” Edwards said. “We’ll have them paint it, and then a week later we’ll get a call.”
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CAPTION FOR BC-CNS-GRAFFITI BILL: Wendy Edwards, a volunteer who coordinates graffiti cleanup in Casa Grande, show a wall defaced by black paint. State Rep. Chad Campbell, D-Phoenix, has introduced legislation that would bar youths from possessing spray paint, fat-tipped markers and other items used to create graffiti. (Cronkite News Service Photo/Michelle Price)
CAPTION FOR BC-CNS-GRAFFITI BILL: This street sign in Casa Grande has been defaced by graffiti. State Rep. Chad Campbell, D-Phoenix, has introduced legislation that would bar youths from possessing spray paint, fat-tipped markers and other items used to create graffiti. (Cronkite News Service Photo/Michelle Price)
CAPTION FOR BC-CNS-GRAFFITI BILL: This street sign in Casa Grande has been defaced by graffiti. State Rep. Chad Campbell, D-Phoenix, has introduced legislation that would bar youths from possessing spray paint, fat-tipped markers and other items used to create graffiti. (Cronkite News Service Photo/Michelle Price)
CAPTION FOR BC-CNS-GRAFFITI BILL: This warning barrier in Casa Grande has been defaced by graffiti. State Rep. Chad Campbell, D-Phoenix, has introduced legislation that would bar youths from possessing spray paint, fat-tipped markers and other items used to create graffiti. (Cronkite News Service Photo/Michelle Price)