In the wake of five recent graffiti arrests, downtown Honolulu residents expressed frustration yesterday with the continuing problem of taggers spray-painting neighborhood property at great cost to homeowners and taxpayers.

"We see a lot of it downtown and it's definitely getting out of hand," said Tom Smyth, a Downtown Neighborhood Board member who lives on Richards Street. "It's something that needs to be stopped."

Smyth said he has spent time painting over graffiti in his neighborhood, but that it continues to reappear in isolated areas with little pedestrian traffic.

Tracking graffiti cases is difficult because Honolulu police classify the crime as criminal property damage, a broad category that includes other types of vandalism. But public perception in some downtown neighborhoods, bolstered this week by the arrests of five adults in two separate tagging incidents, is that the penalties need to be harsher.

Under Hawai'i's recently adopted graffiti law, anyone convicted of graffiti vandalism three times within a five-year period could be sent to jail and/or fined $2,000. First-time offenders are either 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.

"We need to work together, community and the police, to send the message to the taggers that this won't be tolerated by the community," said Honolulu police Capt. Frank Fujii.

Police crime-reduction units in each of the department's eight patrol districts regularly set up surveillance of frequently tagged spots. Patrol officers also take note of problem areas and monitor them during their shifts.

Lynne Matusow, chairwoman of the Downtown Neighborhood Board and a resident of North Beretania Street, said some street "artists" are so eager to display their work they will sometimes carry bail money with them while they paint.

"We all hate graffiti down here and we'd like to get everything cleaned up," Matusow said. "The penalties are so low that it's more important for their 'art' to be shown. Some of the taggers keep coming back to the same spots."

Ken Harding, a Kalihi anthropologist and tutor, said he understands the need of people to express themselves but does not think that needs to be done on public property.

"It's disgraceful to be trashing your environment, and there is no excuse for it at all," he said. "A lot of these graffiti vandals have a lot of talent and the argument is that they need an outlet for this talent. (But) I think public places should be kept in a very pristine state."

City Councilman Charles Djou supports the increased penalties for graffiti vandals but said "outside-the-box thinking" is needed to truly control the problem.

Djou favors creating designated "graffiti walls" where street artists can legally display their work. He cited the success of such programs in Los Angeles and Seattle and said the walls would help control the scope and spread of the graffiti problem. He also touted a program used in Phoenix that incorporated motion-activated cameras mounted in cars parked in areas often hit by taggers.

This week five adults — four men and a woman — between the ages of 18 and 23 were arrested in two separate incidents after they allegedly spray-painted public property.

On Tuesday a 23-year-old woman from North Carolina and an 18-year-old Florida man were arrested after they allegedly painted graffiti on a large section of wall on the H-1 Freeway near Magellan Avenue. On Wednesday police arrested three men after they were caught tagging a drainage canal in Kalihi.

All were charged with misdemeanor criminal property damage.

Reach Peter Boylan at pboylan@honoluluadvertiser.com.