Serial Graffiti/tagger suspect arrested and charged with 6 counts of Felony vandalism

For the past few years the city of Shoreline has been plagued by a serial tagger. This particular vandal uses the moniker “KIDD” as his signature mark or “tag.” 

This vandal used different mediums to apply the tag to property - most often spray paint in a variety of colors, though incidents have occurred where rollers and house paint were applied. 

There are other forms of the tag used by this vandal, such as “KID,” “KID CRUSH,” “KD,” or sometimes simply just “K”. These are the signature marks of one person, his modus operandi.

This serial vandal has been a plague on the City of Shoreline, the Shoreline School District, and surrounding areas, such as the City of Edmonds, for the past two to three years. He targets businesses and fences around private residences, often targeting the same victims repeatedly. This vandal will also target city property, such as utility boxes, road signs, and guard rails.

The damage incurred by the city and private victims by just this one suspect has been in the thousands of dollars. The Shoreline School District estimates it spent $26,000 on all graffiti removal during 2009, including 536 work hours by district maintenance staff.

Today, the King County Prosecutor's Office filed six counts of Felony Vandalism against the suspect in this case, a thirty-five year old longtime Shoreline resident.

Since December of 2009, the Shoreline Police Department has arrested an additional 18 graffiti vandals. Charges will be filed with the King County Prosecutor's Office within the next few weeks. The majority of suspects are Shoreline residents under the age of 18 and attending high school in Shoreline.

If convicted the suspects in all cases may be facing:

• criminal conviction
• community service
• civil penalties

Last year Master Patrol Officer Kyle McCutchen took on the graffiti/tagging incidents and developed what is called a Problem Solving Project. As part of the project he went through years' worth of graffiti/tagging cases, literally hundreds of cases, and patiently sorted them into categories, such as common tags or repeat victims. The work was painstaking and took months. He coordinated the documentation compiled by the police department, the city, and the school district. When the arrests were made for the taggers, it was the work done by MPO McCutchen that allowed the prosecutor's office to file charges.

Information and photos courtesy Sgt. Katie Larson, Shoreline Police