San Francisco hitting up graffiti vandals with costly civil suits
[...] it’s nearly impossible to catch anyone in the act.
[...] if cops do, a criminal case in the courts often results in minor consequences, like a few hours of community service.
A walk down virtually any graffiti-tagged street in the city tells you criminal charges aren’t having much of an effect.
In an innovative and clever legal maneuver, the city attorney’s office is asking the courts to treat the city like any other property owner and allow it to sue for damages to pay for graffiti cleanup.
[...] that’s how San Francisco has filed a civil suit against a woman officials say is an infamous serial tagger.
The city alleges that Cozy Terry (her real name according to the complaint) tags as “Coze” and is responsible for 28 separate acts of vandalism on city buses.
The complaint also seeks to ban Terry from carrying tools that can be used for graffiti and from “entering into, or riding upon, any Muni bus, railcar, cable car, trolley or LRV.”
[...] city officials tweaked local laws to make it easier to bring these cases to civil court.
Supervisor London Breed pushed legislation in spring 2014 that, among other changes, amended “the Public Works Code to permit the City to pursue civil remedies, including injunctive relief, civil penalties, attorney’s fees and repayment of abatement costs.”
[...] that’s where taggers’ desire for public attention works against them.
Because taggers essentially sign their names on walls and buses, and want recognition, it’s easy for an expert, like SFPD’s graffiti officer Martin Ferreira, to identify them.
Workers who spend every day painting over tags now use the city’s 311 phone app to photograph the graffiti before removing it, and send the image to Ferreira.
[...] when Cannon and co-Deputy City Attorney Victoria Weatherford put the complaint together, they were able to show examples of tags and create a map showing locations where the person believed to be Terry had been tagging.
Terry apparently disabled her Flickr, Tumblr and Instagram accounts after she was served with the suit last Saturday, but Weatherford and Cannon had already grabbed screen shots.