SOUTH BEND — It's a problem that seems to surface every spring. But this year, many say graffiti is worse than ever before, and not just in the "usual" spots. Now, city leaders are working with neighborhoods across to city to clean it up and make those responsible pay.
Tim Hudak is one of them.
As President of South Bend's West Side Democratic Club and President of the West Side Neighborhood Association, he's used to the smell of freshly painted walls.
He's already painted over graffiti on the Club twice this year.
But, he didn't think it would ever hit his home.
That is, until it did. Twice.
"It's very frustrating," he said while looking at a fresh graffiti "tag" outside the club. "You feel a personal attack there. And then the second attack comes when you get a letter from code enforcement to clean up something that you didn't even do."
And Hudak isn't alone.
It's become the new sign of spring across Hudak's West Side neighborhood.
"They're looking for new areas and they want to target areas that are visible to the public," he said, showing WSBT on a walking tour of just how much spray paint the area has endured in recent weeks. "They want the public to know they're here."
But it's not just gang signs on garages. There is new profanity on playgrounds, and paint all over local parks.
It's certainly nothing new in many of the "usual" spots. But this year, many say the problem has gotten dramatically worse. And it's no longer just in vacant areas on the South Bend's West side labeled as "weed and seed" areas by the city.
It's suddenly popping up on occupied homes from the Rum Village neighborhood all the way to Erskine Commons on the south side.
South Bend Common Council member Oliver Davis, who lives in Rum Village says his home has been "tagged" too. It's evidence he said that the problem is spiraling out of control and clean up crews, who often rely on dwindling grants, and a lack of volunteers, simply can't keep up.
"We've covered over 60 sites already this year, and in years past that's unheard of for April," said South Bend's Weed and Seed Coordinator Mark Dollinger. "We only covered 290 in all of last year. So, if we have 60 already by the beginning of April when it's just starting to get warm out, we've got a major problem."
On Monday night Dollinger and Hudak joined with South Bend's Code Enforcement Department and the Common Council's Health and Public Safety Committee to search for new solutions to the growing problem.
They agreed the root of it is clear.
"It's very hard to catch people in the act," said committee member Derek Dieter, who is also a South Bend Police Officer. "A lot of times you're not going to get cooperation [from witnesses]."
It's one reason the city hasn't prosecuted a single graffiti case in more than 3 years.
But Dieter and others said there is a simple solution that could produce immediate results.
"I think if you offer money as an incentive for someone to call in, it may help the problem," he said. "I'd like to implement something like a "quick 50" or a "quick 100" like [Crimestoppers] does for stolen car tips. That could let them give information anonymously so if someone had painted a garage say, we can at least go out and identify it."
Right now, Dieter says most of that work is being done by officers in weed and seed areas, who send reports to the city's code enforcement department.
But he worries, there's too much confusion to make that system effective.
"We don't really have a point of contact, or who to contact, or when to contact them," he said. "I'm just looking for basically a clearinghouse; one central area where all the information is going so we know who's going to be in charge of cleaning what up."
The group also discussed other potential fixes, including the placement of new security cameras or lights with motion detectors in high graffiti areas and expanded neighborhood watch programs.
Some also suggested a ban on the sale of spray paint to minors. Several other major cities across the country have recently enacted legislation doing exactly that.
But South Bend City Attorney Chuck Leone says, it might not be so simple.
"We're going to look and see what authority the city might have to restrict those sales at private businesses," he said.
But many say none of it will matter, unless there are stiffer penalties for those caught defacing property, and the parents of those who are minors.
"The message under this new ordinance we're drafting is 'you will be fined, and held responsible for their behavior," said Health and Public Safety Committee Chair Karen White.
But Leone cautions, careful thought will have to go into the ordinance too.
"There is a very specific provision under Indiana law that does allow parents to be held responsible for the intentional acts of their children," he said. "But the problem is, first of all you have to prove the act was done by a specific child. Then the court has to allow us to collect damages from the parent."
And without other measures in place, that could be difficult.
That's why Hudak, and others at Monday's meeting urged the committee to act quickly.
"Something else has to be done," he said. "It has to be swift, and it has to be zero tolerance."
The Health and Public Safety Committee will talk more about the new ordinance next month.
