Councilman Ed Reyes has launched a citywide program to try and put a dent in L.A.’s graffiti problem.  The initiative allows property owners to rent wall space at construction sites and vacant lots to advertisers if they agree to remove graffiti at the site and the area that surrounds it.

Property owners and city leaders seem to agree that graffiti is a sign of blight, but graffiti expert Timothy Kephart says it’s important for cities to interpret the hidden messages in graffiti before it is removed.

“There’s intelligence that law enforcement can use to find out which gangs are threatening each other,” Kephart says.  “You can start to associate what gang members hang out with one another based on the graffiti.”

Kephart says cities like Pico Rivera that track graffiti before erasing it have reduced its occurrence by 40 percent and have been able to reassign abatement crews.  If L.A. residents paint over graffiti before it is cataloged by the police department, valuable information will be lost.