A review of vandalism and destruction of property cases shows that cases rarely end in fines. (File photo) View Full Caption DNAinfo/Quinn Ford

CHICAGO — This summer, Mayor Rahm Emanuel pushed the City Council to stiffen penalties for vandalism, a measure he billed as a way to crack down on graffiti across the city.

Under the revised ordinance, fines for vandalism and damage to public property more than doubled. The increased fines would work first and foremost to "deter future vandalism," Emanuel said in announcing the change.

And though city leaders say the increased fines may have already led to a decline in graffiti, a review of city records by DNAinfo Chicago obtained through the Freedom of Information Act found fines for the crimes are rarely assessed or paid.

From 2012 through June of this year, the city handled a total of 1,607 cases of vandalism and destruction of property. Of those, only 58 — or 3.6 percent of cases — resulted in a fine, according to records from the city's Department of Administrative Hearings and the Department of Finance.

Those cases totaled about $24,706 in fines owed the city, of which $6,964 — or 28.2 percent — has been paid to date.

But it is unclear just how many of those cases involved people caught doing graffiti. Although graffiti falls under vandalism and destruction of public property, so do myriad other violations, such as dumping out trash cans or a car hitting a street light. Officials from the Department of Administrative Hearings declined to say how many cases involved graffiti, saying that required an individual review of each and every case.

And while the number of adjudicated cases for graffiti is unclear, the number of arrests for graffiti-related offenses is actually down. In 2013, 528 people were arrested for the offenses, compared to 564 in 2012, Police Department spokesman Marty Maloney said.

Chicago police say graffiti, in particular, is a difficult crime to stop. Cmdr. Williams Dunn, of the Near North District, told aldermen debating the increased fines at a committee meeting this summer that catching offenders is tough.

"It happens very quickly," he said. "It only takes a few seconds."

Longtime Chicago graffiti artists have been dubious that steeper fines will not serve as an effective deterrent, given the city's graffiti subculture and how fines are ultimately handled.

Sivel, a Chicago-born graffiti artist, who has been around since the 1980s, said most graffiti writing, or tagging, is done by young people just getting into the subculture, and those young people do not care about fines and, many times, cannot afford to pay them.

"It's something that can never be stopped," said Sivel, who asked his real name not be used. "Anybody that thinks that a monetary amount is going to stop somebody from living their lifestyle isn't approaching the situation with any kind of intelligence."

And Sivel said he knows from experience. He was caught and fined in the 1990s for defacing CTA property.

"I never did pay the fine, and the CTA, they never sought restitution from me that they were court-ordered to receive," he said.

That case happened under former Mayor Richard M. Daley, whom Sivel jokingly compared to the "gestapo" when it came to graffiti. Daley cracked down on graffiti in many ways, from enforcing a 1995 ban on the sale of spray paint within city limits to creating a dedicated police unit to go after taggers.

But some of those efforts were rolled back when Emanuel entered office as a way to address the city's budget deficit.

In recent months, Emanuel has publicly ramped up his efforts to combat graffiti.

This year, Emanuel budgeted approximately $4.9 million to remove graffiti, a $1 million increase that provided two additional blasting crews and two more chemical trucks. The Department of Streets and Sanitation, charged with removing graffiti, also recently touted an overall decline in graffiti-removal requests as well as a faster response times by removal crews.

The revised ordinance passed the City Council in July. Minimum vandalism fines for first-time offenses doubled from $750 to no less than $1,500. Repeat offenders could get fined as much as $2,500. Damage to public property fines also increased from a maximum of $500 to $1,000. Fines for guardians of minors caught vandalizing property or damaging public property increased from a maximum of $750 to $1,000.

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