Walls and windows blanketed with graffiti in the University District have prompted residents and business owners to blame the Columbus Division of Police for not doing enough to apprehend those responsible for the nuisance.

Lee Murphy has been a travel agent for four years at Regency Travel located at 1908 N. High St. She said graffiti activity has picked up over the last two years, and the police do not seem interested in catching the culprits.

“The city has done absolutely nothing,” Murphy said. “We’ve made a report. It’s been several years, and I know they don’t have a conviction or suspects. They just didn’t do anything about it.”

Graffiti vandals have tagged Regency Travel and other campus-area businesses using several techniques like spray painting, inking and the latest fad, acid etching.

Acid-etching products can be obtained easily in craft stores and over the Internet. They come in a cream form and contain hydrofluoric and sulfuric acids. The process is more damaging to glass and other exteriors than paint or ink because it actually penetrates the surface.

The effects of acid etching might be neutralized if water or a baking soda paste is applied directly to the tag after it has been left. If this does not work, glass must either be replaced or undergo an expensive and time-consuming polishing process — without guaranteeing favorable results — to repair the damage caused by acid etching.

It took graffiti vandals one day to deface the campus location of Bank One after it relocated Feb. 17 to 1698 N. High St., said Douglas Bickert, banking center manager.

He said graffiti vandals hit the previous location hard with acid etching.

“We had to board it up because it was too costly to repair,” Bickert said. “I’d say we probably spent a couple thousand of dollars over the last year (to fix graffiti damage).”

Bob Wicks, a resident of the University District for 12 years, said the blame does not rest entirely on the city. He said most of the blame for Columbus’ graffiti problem should be pinned on the vandals.

“Just because you enjoy to paint buildings doesn’t give you a right to paint on the side of my fence,” Wicks said. “Graffiti just says that you don’t care about the people around you. It all comes down to a question of respect for your neighbors. If you don’t keep a level of common decency in the area, then you build a neighborhood that no one cares about.”

Wicks said the city has to start showing the residents of the University District more respect.

“Police respond by saying, ‘You live in the University District. You should expect it,’ ” he said.

Sherry Mercurio, spokeswoman for the Columbus Division of Police, said the city’s graffiti problem is not exclusive to the University District, and the police are doing everything in their power to control the graffiti problem.

“If anything, we’ve probably dedicated more people to the campus area that any other area in the city,” she said. “I disagree with anyone who says we don’t care about that area.”

She said Columbus’ 2,000 police officers have more serious crimes to worry about than graffiti.

“When you work with limited resources, you have to prioritize,” Mercurio said. “We don’t have the manpower to assign people to specific areas of crime.”

She said the police sympathize with the victims, but stress graffitists are hard to apprehend because they have lookouts and keep a low profile.

Police records show 40 graffiti vandals were arrested in Columbus last year.

According to the Columbus City Code, minors are prohibited from purchasing wide-tipped markers and spray paint in hope of preventing graffiti. In addition, merchants who sell wide-tipped markers and spray paint are required to post a sign listing the penalties associated with graffiti. Merchants risk a $100 fine for failure to comply with the requirements.

An ordinance controlling the sale of acid-etching products has not yet been written into the city codes.