Graffiti in San Diego

Inside the City of San Diego, report existing graffiti on public or private property with Get It Done, using the graffiti form or the Get It Done San Diego app, or call the Graffiti Hotline at 619-527-7500. Calls to the hotline are confidential. Reports go to the City's Graffiti Control Program in the Street Division.

• The exact location. Put the pin on the tagged wall, fence or sign, and say where on it the graffiti is ("the alley side of the building, by the back door").
• A photo that shows the graffiti and enough of its surroundings to find it.

Graffiti on a utility box, a dumpster or other equipment belongs to the company that owns it: companies are responsible for painting out graffiti on their own assets, and the City may refer those reports to them. For other kinds of problems, see our guide to reporting a problem to the City of San Diego.

The City publishes estimated resolution times based on the last 90 days of closed reports. For graffiti they depend almost entirely on whose property it is on (as of May 7, 2026):

The gap is not about crews being slow. City crews remove graffiti from City property themselves. On private property, code compliance officers first have to notify the owner of the graffiti and of the owner's responsibility to remove it, and stay in contact with owners of commercial buildings and residential buildings with 4 or more units until the property complies. How long that takes depends on the owner's cooperation.

If you report graffiti on a private building and you know the owner or manager, tell them too: removing it is their responsibility, and they may not have seen it yet.

Under San Diego Municipal Code section 54.0405, it is unlawful for a responsible person to let graffiti remain on any surface they own or control when it is visible from the street or other public property. In practice:

1. Photograph it and report it (Get It Done or 619-527-7500), so there is a record, before you clean it.
2. Remove it, or let the City do it. If you receive a Notice and Order of Abatement, the Code lets you consent in writing to the City entering your property to remove the graffiti. The consent form includes a waiver of liability for damage caused during removal.
3. Cost. Under section 54.0410, no abatement costs are charged to an owner who did not cause the graffiti, unless the City has cleaned the property more than five times within twelve months. The City may also take the owner's financial and physical ability to clean it into account.

If the City does not get cooperation, it can use the administrative abatement procedures in the Municipal Code, and City crews or its contractor are authorized to enter the property and remove graffiti that is visible from public streets, property or rights-of-way.

Parents can be held responsible too: under section 54.0411 and California Civil Code section 1714.1, a parent or guardian with custody can be jointly liable for property damage caused by a minor's willful misconduct, and the City's cost recovery rules also apply to parents of juveniles who violate the graffiti ordinance.

The City's Graffiti Control Program covers the City of San Diego. Elsewhere in the county, report it to the agency that is responsible:

In unincorporated areas, the County also offers to remove graffiti from private property at no cost to the owner, through a County contractor, once the owner signs a Graffiti Removal Authorization Form. The County notes that owners are not required to use the service, but remain responsible for removing graffiti that is visible from outside their property.