KANE'OHE — Twenty years ago, an outcry about graffiti sparked the city into vigorous action — but those efforts appear to have been for naught.

Prompted by many complaints, Mayor Frank Fasi attacked the graffiti problem in 1986 by forming the Graffiti Busters program and a private task force.

Graffiti Busters was a Crime Stoppers-like program that rewarded citizens who turned in vandals in situations that led to arrests and convictions. Fasi also wanted to control the sale of marker pens, asked the state to encourage school children to turn in taggers and set up a 24-hour hot line to take reports of graffiti activities.

The task force, including community leaders, businesses and residents, was asked to address the problem through avenues such as education, cleanup and enforcement, said Rick Ralston, a member of the task force. After several months of meetings, a report was drafted and given to the mayor, but none of the recommendations were carried out, Ralston said.

Those recommendations included providing an appropriate place for people to draw graffiti, maybe even make a contest of it, he said. In exchange, the graffiti writers would have to help control the problem. There were also suggestions for reaching students in schools, requiring them to clean up graffiti and getting them to put pressure on their peers doing the graffiti, Ralston said.

Instead, Fasi relied on enforcement and holding parents responsible, and to a degree it worked, Ralston said.

"The enforcement is one thing, but is enforcement working alone? No, it's not," he said.

Fasi was not available to comment and his wife, Joyce, said he probably wouldn't remember much about the task force. But she remembered that her husband used to cover up graffiti whenever he could.

"In those days he used to get so upset, that's why every Saturday and Sunday he'd be out with the dog," Joyce Fasi said. "He'd be driving around and he'd have different kinds of paint in his car."

According to a newspaper report in 1986, six weeks after the beginning of a city crackdown on graffiti, police had arrested 43 juveniles and one adult. Seventeen of the suspects were referred to Family Court and the others were required to go with their parents to meet with police detectives for counseling.

The report also said that Fasi had agreed to meet with members of graffiti gangs to discuss possible amnesty from criminal prosecution.

The perception at the time was that the problem had subsided with the arrests, according to Ralston, but it never disappeared.

Through the '90s and now, reports speak about near "epidemic" levels of graffiti in parks, arrests of juveniles and adults, attempts to solve the problem through tougher punishment, and increased volunteer paintouts.

Today, however, the efforts are broader, with more police arrests and involvement in organizing community groups. The approach to possible solutions includes surveillance cameras, graffiti parks and rewards.

"All the police districts have an organized effort against graffiti," said Maj. Randy Macadangdang, with District 1. These efforts include more sting operations, encouraging residents to report crimes and helping organize cleanups, Macadangdang said. "The whole thing is partnership," Macadangdang said. Police are also submitting proposed laws to the Legislature or City Council.

Once such proposed law calls for anyone convicted of graffiti vandalism three times within a five-year period to be sent to jail and/or fined $2,000.

First-time offenders are charged with criminal property damage in the second-, third- or fourth- degree, depending on the cost to conceal the graffiti. Second-degree criminal property damage is a felony.

Arrests are up from last year. In all of 2005, police opened 1,111 cases and arrested 227 people.

By the end of October, 1,278 cases had been generated and 248 arrests had been made, Macadangdang said.

The number of convictions was unavailable but in a recent case Webster Agudong, 19, was ordered to serve four weekends in jail and spend 200 hours helping clean up graffiti after pleading guilty to painting graffiti on highway signs last year. He'll also have to pay $5,211 to replace the signs.

Graffiti writers vary in age, sex and ethnicity. Some go it alone and others travel in groups or gangs, but they aren't necessarily the types of gangs associated with violence and drugs, said Lt. Guy DeMello of the Pearl City police.

Some belong to car clubs and dance crews and some are associated with skateboarding, DeMello said.

"Hip-hop dancing is a huge conduit for meeting and conversing with other graffiti taggers," he said.

Many of the people arrested are repeat offenders and DeMello said he has a book of about 50 known taggers just from his district alone. He wouldn't guess at the number of unknown taggers out there but said there are probably more than 50.

"Basically it's a bunch of guys and gals that get together," DeMello said. "They're narcissistic."

Reach Eloise Aguiar at eaguiar@honoluluadvertiser.com.