Undercover Agents to Fight Vandalism on City Buses

San Diego Transit unveiled on Friday a plan to help cut down the number of buses that are defaced and reduce repair costs.

The $50,000 program will work by having privately contracted transit security officers ride undercover on various routes in an attempt to catch people spray-painting, ripping up seat cushions or scratching windows with sharp objects, the district’s single biggest vandalism problem.

“We believe the new program will serve as a deterrent to vandals and potential vandals,” San Diego Transit President Roger Snoble said. “This blatant waste of our customers’ and taxpayers’ money must stop.”

San Diego Transit pays $30,000 a month to repair vandalized buses. Last year, the average cost was about $5,000 a month, Snoble said.

A second facet of the program will offer rewards of up to $1,000 for tips leading to the arrests and conviction of vandals, Snoble said.

“We want the people to know that if you (vandalize) there is a good chance you’re going to get caught,” Snoble said.

The project is a joint attempt by San Diego Transit, the San Diego Probation Department and the city attorney’s office to eradicate vandalism on the county’s 340 buses, which service over 100,000 customers a day in a 390-square-mile area, Snoble said.

Snoble said the surge in defacing first appeared about eight months ago for unknown reasons, when the number of etchings in window panes and on bus surfaces suddenly increased.

“Our main rule used to be that, if a bus came in with graffiti, it would not go out again until it was cleaned up again,” Snoble said. Because of repair costs, “we found that we just couldn’t do that anymore.”

Snoble said decals on buses will help inform riders of the undercover and reward programs, which will continue indefinitely.