GRAFFITI 911 – Carla is co-founder and President of GRAFFITI 911, a company devoted to assisting municipalities, businesses, and police agencies with expert services and tools for graffiti eradication, enforcement, and education.
(www.Graffiti911.com)
As one of the nation’s top anti-graffiti experts, Carla Thaler brings a strong background and expert knowledge in graffiti eradication, enforcement, and education.
During the course of her career her work and study has included:
G.R.I.P. (Graffiti Reduction Identification and Prosecution) – In her duties for the downtown Portland Clean & Safe district she was responsible for the data entry and analysis of graffiti removed in a 212-block area of downtown Portland. Since the programs inception in September of 1999 until she left that position, she entered over 15,000 photographs of graffiti into a specialized database that was maintained in her office. She managed, updated, monitored and maintained this resource.
Mayor’s Graffiti Task Force – Carla has been an active member of the Mayor’s Graffiti Task Force a group of Portland based graffiti abatement and enforcement professionals who meet monthly to discuss graffiti movements in the City of Portland.
She was also an active member of the Acid Vandalism Task Force, a sub-committee of the Mayor’s Graffiti Task Force. In this capacity Carla consulted with the president of Amour Products, makers of Armour Etch and Etch Bath, two commonly used product associated with acid vandalism.
Her consultation with Amour Products led to consulting with the Director for Chemical Research and Development with 3M Corporation. Carla used her background in anti-graffiti to consult, advise, and brainstorm possible solutions concerning the trend of vandals using acid etching products for vandalism.
Graffiti Summit Conference Presenter – Carla was a presenter at the September 2000 Graffiti Summit Conference hosted by the City of Portland. She provided information on the use of the Internet as a resource for graffiti abatement and enforcement.
Seattle Anti-Graffiti Program – Carla has been an active member of the Seattle Anti-Graffiti Program. This program is similar to the Mayor’s Graffiti Task Force.
She has participated in the service of two search warrants in the Seattle jurisdiction. This was a multi-agency effort with participants from Bellingham Police Department, Seattle Police Department Gang Unit, and the Association for Portland Progress. During this warrant service Carla acted as the On-Scene Evidentiary Analyst.
NoGraf Network – Carla has been an active member and past Director of the NoGraf Network. The NoGraf Network, Inc. is a non-profit organization, which links gang and anti-graffiti experts, via the Internet, on 6 continents and in 15 countries. NoGraf members are located in over 60 US municipalities in 23 states. The Network enables information exchange among members as well as archive information at the NoGraf web site.
Through this network, Carla has supervised successful campaigns educating companies of the negative effects of using vandalism or vandalism concepts in corporate advertising or product design. Among the companies Carla had contact with are: NAACP, Scholastic Australia, SEGA, Ecko Limited, Nike, IBM, Microsoft, Target, and Altoids.
Portland Police Bureau – Carla has assisted PPB with numerous search warrants for graffiti crimes including the writing of the warrant and analysis of evidence seized, she has also participated on scene as the on-site evidentiary analyst. She has provided information, analysis, and recommendations to this agency for over three years.
Carla has participated in suspect debriefings with the Portland Police Bureau, as well as provided investigative efforts towards the identification of suspects.
Her efforts for the department have been acknowledged with two commendations.
On April 1st, 2002 Carla was the recipient of the Chief’s Forum Certificate of
Appreciation for outstanding effort towards community policy. As read during the presentation of the award, “Carla Thaler is being recognized for her work in graffiti abatement. Her efforts have benefited neighborhood district attorneys and police from all five precincts. Her work has been instrumental in the prosecution of several prolific “taggers”. In a recent court case, Ms. Thaler was identified, by the court, as one of two graffiti identification experts in the City of Portland. Ms. Thaler’s efforts toward graffiti abatement have helped make Portland a cleaner and more livable city.”
Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office – Carla has provided expert testimony in a Multnomah County Court Probation Violation Hearing in Judge Schnaufer’s Courtroom.
She has assisted the District Attorney’s Office in case development, prosecution, and/or plea negotiation, and sentencing guidelines for multiple suspects.
Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office – Carla has provided expert analysis on an acid vandalism cases and anticipate working with this agency again in the future
Multnomah County Office of Community Justice – Carla has consulted with the Multnomah County Office of Community Justice, the City of Portland, and other non-profit organizations on the development of a restorative justice model for convicted vandals.
Beaverton Police Department – Carla graduated from the Beaverton Citizen’s Academy, which included a two-hour segment on graffiti, on March 30th, 2000. She
was also a regular volunteer with the police department and offered recommendations for their graffiti abatement efforts and assist at events.
On April 18th, 2000 she attended a Graffiti Summit at the Beaverton Police Department
that included approximately 30 graffiti abatement and enforcement professionals from
the metropolitan area. On April 26th, 2002 Carla received a Certificate of Recognition
from the Beaverton Police Department for her efforts.
“Strategies in Community Policing – In August of 2000, Carla attended an extensive 80 hour training at the Western Community Policing Center in Monmouth. During this training she received intense crime prevention and community policing instruction and was required to complete a comprehensive plan for a combating a community problem of my choice. Carla also presented her plan for anti-graffiti, which included prevention, education, enforcement, abatement, and restorative justice.
“Graffiti Enforcement and Investigation” – In July of 2001, Carla attended an 8 hour course sponsored by the San Bernardino Police Department in San Bernardino, California. During this training she received instruction on graffiti culture, anti-graffiti education, civil restitution, search warrants, intelligence, database management, surveillance, instruments of graffiti and case preparation.
”2002 International Downtown Association Annual Conference – In October 2002 Carla presented at the annual conference for the International Downtown Association. Her presentation focused on the need for aggressive action in response to vandalism.
NYPD Vandal Squad – Carla spent two days with the NYPD Vandal Squad in October 2002 observing their program and methods.
Independent Research – Carla has spent thousands of hours researching graffiti through; anti-graffiti websites, pro-graffiti websites, pro-graffiti newsgroups, news articles, online magazines, and Internet discussion groups. Through this research, she has become expert in graffiti and hip-hop culture and sub-cultures, graffiti application techniques, graffiti styles and individual taggers as well as crews.
Through this ongoing study of the “other side,” Carla has increased her expertise concerning the most effective removal and abatement techniques.
Graffiti Consultant- Because of the above experience cited above, Carla has had the privilege to consult with the following agencies regarding graffiti: Portland Police Bureau, Beaverton Police Department, Seattle Police Department, City of Seattle, City of Portland, Portland State University Public Safety, Tri-Met Transit Police, Bend Police Department, Eugene Police Department, Vancouver Police Department, Tacoma Police Department, Pittsburgh Police Department, Bellingham Police Department, Everett Police Department, Virginia Beach Police Department, City of Casey Australia as well as various agencies throughout the US.
