The city has gone after parents for the child’s acts of vandalism, he said, who can be made to pay up to $25,000 in vandalism damages committed by their child.
“We deem acts of graffiti vandalism to be the intentional misconduct when performed by a minor,” Howard said.
Another law that could have local implications would allow police to impound vehicles for up to 30 days if they were used to commit prostitution or illegal dump commercial waste on roads.
But the vehicles can only be impounded if the owner or driver is convicted of those crimes in the past three years.
Cities can declare vehicles used for illegal dumping a public nuisance in order to impound them, officials said.
“Right now, I don’t know if we ever made an arrest for someone who has committed the crime of public dumping or littering under our code,” said Sam Engel, Glendale’s Neighborhood Services administrator.
Public dumping has dropped since Engel started working with the city 20 years ago, he said.
“Largely, that’s due to the education overtime,” Engel said. “That not to say we don’t have certain places in town where public dumping is done and the threat of impounding a vehicle involved in a crime would be a very effective deterrent.”
The city must conduct more conclusive research on the new law, he said.
“We would look into the what the state authorizes us to do and if we felt it would be an effective deterrent, then that would be something that we would want to do and we look into that once the law takes place at the state level,” Engel said.
Also starting this year, May 22 will officially be known as Harvey Milk Day.
