Graffiti reports nearly doubled

MaryAnn McCray is waiting for the weather to warm up so she can paint over the graffiti vandals spray-painted across the wall outside her Coeur d’Alene antique store.

It’s the second time her business, Antique Corner, has been “tagged” in the past two years. This time, McCray bought extra paint.

With three months left in 2007, reports of graffiti in Coeur d’Alene have nearly doubled over the previous year, according to Coeur d’Alene police.

The Coeur d’Alene Police Department received 15 reports of graffiti in 2005, compared with 52 in 2006 and 91 so far this year.

“Some of the graffiti has been gang-related,” Coeur d’Alene Police Officer James Crooker said Monday.

“But there’s also growth in the city. … We have more walls to be graffitied now.”

Crooker said he suspects reports may also have increased because of heightened community awareness of gangs and gang-related crimes, such as graffiti. Though graffiti is often associated with gangs, Crooker said not all graffiti is gang-related.

He said it’s difficult to say how much of the graffiti in Coeur d’Alene gang members are responsible for.

“It’s up to us to determine: Is this real or is this a bunch of delinquent kids?” Crooker said.

To be considered a gang, Kootenai County Sheriff’s Deputy Jon Brandel said a group must be connected to criminal activity.

“There are some groups of kids out there that go by a common name,” he said.

Gang members or not, Brandel said, the graffiti artists have the same objective: to get their name on as many walls, in as many high visibility locations as possible.

Though businesses in Coeur d’Alene’s downtown and midtown areas are often victims of graffiti, the crime is spreading to residential areas, Crooker said.

The sheriff’s department has also received several reports of graffiti on Forest Service land, especially near the Nettleton Gulch trailhead.

When graffiti is reported, the police department photographs the damage and then compares the pictures with other graffiti discovered throughout the county in hopes of determining whether the graffiti is gang-related.

Police look for familiar nicknames or monikers to build a criminal case against so-called tagging crews.

Several gangs have been identified in North Idaho, Brandel said.

He encourages citizens to report any graffiti in the community to police and, once a report is taken, to promptly remove the graffiti or paint over it.