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Community Corner

Soquel Volunteer Helps Eradicate Graffiti

Soquel's Michael Beaty has donated thousands of hours to cover and photograph vandalism. His efforts have led to a significant decrease in graffiti.

After five years of voluntarily cleaning up graffiti throughout Soquel, Michael Beaty may have painted—and photographed—himself out of a job.

When the 62-year-old Soquel resident picked up a paintbrush in 2006 to cover up the unsightly tags that had been scrawled on bus stops, street signs, utility boxes and the sides of buildings in his hometown, it seemed like an endless task. Beaty would routinely spend three or four hours most days of the week hunting for and eradicating the marks vandals had scrawled throughout Soquel.

Before getting to work on the cleanup, Beaty would photograph the vandalism to document it and forward the digital images to members of the Soquel Neighborhood Alliance and authorities. These days, thanks to Beaty's efforts, and the work of many others, Beaty often goes two or three weeks before finding any graffiti to remove.

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"He's done a great job," said Sgt. Joe Clarke of the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office, and the former School Resource Officer at Soquel High. "When graffiti gets covered up right away, the taggers go somewhere else to do it. They want maximum exposure."

Beaty's efforts earned him a 2007-08 Outstanding Volunteer Award from Santa Cruz County and Congressional Recognition in 2008, when he was honored with the "Be the Difference Award" by Congressman Sam Farr. But the biggest satisfaction for Beaty comes from making Soquel, where he has lived since 1984, a more desirable place to live.

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Beaty began his anti-graffiti work after noticing the vandalism was increasing in Soquel so much that it was negatively affecting property values. His career as a plumbing engineer—with a specialty in complicated projects for high-rise buildings—allows him to work a flexible schedule. So Beaty said he took matters into his own hands.

"I was raised on a ranch .... and my parents taught myself and my sister to be responsible," Beaty said. "So I bought some paint and went out and started doing it."

While Beaty has put thousands of hours into the fight against graffiti, he is quick to note that many other people and organizations have worked to make a difference in Soquel's battle against vandalism. Volunteers from Soquel High School's honor society, church groups, the Soquel Neighborhood Alliance, the Santa Cruz County Volunteer Graffiti Removal Program and the county's anti-graffiti task force, to name a few, have all played an important role in helping to eradicate graffiti.

"It's a joint effort," Beaty said.

The biggest turning point came after Santa Cruz County District Attorney Bob Lee's anti-graffiti task force was formed several years ago. The program increased communication between law enforcement, volunteers, the county Redevelopment Agency, city officials in Watsonville and others working to get rid of graffiti.

The combined efforts helped the DA's office to aggressively prosecute prolific offenders. Convicted vandals are often sentenced to pay restitution for the damages they caused and to perform hundreds of hours of graffiti-cleaning community service.

Sgt. Robin Mitchell of the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office's community policing team, which investigates graffiti vandalism throughout the county, said the photographs Beaty has taken of the tags he eradicated have helped her department and prosecutors build stronger cases against vandals.

"We really rely on people like Michael, who abate and document graffiti," Mitchell said. "If he starts seeing a lot of a certain tag in Soquel, he'll let me know. By sharing documentation, we can build a (bigger) master case" against a vandal.

Those efforts have resulted in more felony prosecutions and led to a drop in vandalism in Soquel and other parts of the county.

"We've seen a significant decrease in graffiti, and we've seen so many people convicted that it's getting harder to find graffiti for them to abate" as part of their sentence, Mitchell said.

Both Mitchell and Beaty note that many vandals who are required to clean up graffiti develop a sense of pride in the community and put away their spray cans and marking pens permanently.

"When all those things come together, it's amazing what can be done," Beaty said.

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