ELKHART — The mayor calls it one of the city's biggest problems. Vandals are spraying graffiti on Elkhart buildings, leaving a mess for the city to clean up. But the city is increasing efforts to remove it quickly.

Police are taking more reports of graffiti in Elkhart. It's causing the mayor's phone to ring off the hook.

"The number one call that we've received in the last two months is about graffiti, so we need to get on that. It’s bothering our people,” said Mayor Dick Moore. “I believe we have been informed of some 75 locations.”

The city bought a piece of equipment so city crews can clean it up quickly.

"Our problem has been that we didn't have the equipment that would work in this kind of weather, the kind of weather we've been having this winter,” Mayor Moore explained. “So once we found it, we immediately purchased it.”

The city is now streamlining the process of removing graffiti. It wants to speed up the process by reducing the red tape.

In the past, an officer took a report. That report then went to the city. The city would then have to go back to the site to have a property owner sign a waiver for cleanup.

Now, that's changing.

"When an incident occurs with graffiti the officer could have a waiver with him, have the property owner sign it, that gets the cleanup process done much quicker,” explained Lt. Ed Windbigler of the Elkhart Police. “We get it turned back into the city, then the parks department can come out here and do their thing.”

"We've seen it here and there in the downtown area, and it will be nice to see the city get rid of it as soon as they can,” said Steve Salsbury, a merchant in downtown Elkhart.

Mayor Moore says the equipment works in cold temperatures. He says they're also working to prevent graffiti from occurring in the first place.