Los Angeles sees slight decline in annual graffiti calls
A year ago, Los Angeles was having a graffiti moment. Taggers had discovered that a stalled Downtown high-rise project had little security. Within weeks the trio of towers had been covered in colorful markings. International attention ensued, as did an array of questions: How do you secure the property known as Oceanwide Plaza? Who would pay for it? Was this art or vandalism?
Today the site is fenced off, but the tags remain. And perspective reveals something else surprising: Despite all the attention, the 317,372 graffiti reports tallied in the city in 2024 was slightly below the previous year’s total. It also marked the lowest count since 2018, according to publicly available MyLA311 service request data.
The range in reports over the past seven years is relatively narrow. There also are regular ups and downs, including a spike last July. But the data demonstrates that, year in and year out, graffiti calls in Los Angeles are relatively stable.
The official tally includes complaints that Angelenos place with the MyLA311 system; these can come via phone, website or app.
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The total also incorporates graffiti that abatement crews see on the street and proactively paint over. The city has an Office of Community Beautification, which contracts with community-based organizations (or CBOs) working in different parts of Los Angeles. According to the office’s website, “Each CBO has a graffiti removal program that utilizes persons needing to complete community service hours for the court system.”
The city aims to respond to MyLA311calls within 72 hours, though tags are frequently eradicated within a day.
Spray paint in nearly every neighborhood
In most months there are between 25,000 and 30,000 graffiti clean-ups in Los Angeles. Curiously, the 2024 low was in June, with under 23,000 reports, and the high occurred in July.
January 2025 brought 30,561 graffiti reports, more than any single month last year.
As has been the case for several years, Boyle Heights in 2024 was tagged more than any other community. There were over 29,000 clean-ups, according to MyLA311 data.
The only other neighborhood with more than 20,000 reports was Downtown. Just six communities in total saw more than 10,000 calls last year.
Although most upscale neighborhoods had relatively low numbers, counts might still be higher than people expect. There were 689 graffiti reports last year in Larchmont, and 403 in Mt. Washington. Even Playa Vista logged 124 clean-ups.
How we did it: We examined publicly available MyLA311 service request data from Jan. 1, 2018–Jan. 31, 2025. For neighborhood boundaries, we rely on the borders defined by the Los Angeles Times. The city of Los Angeles may update past service requests with new information, or recategorize past reports. Those revised reports do not always automatically become part of the public database.
Have questions about our data or want to know more? Write to us at askus@xtown.la.
