Police in Wellington say taggers are putting their lives and those who clean up their scrawls at risk, as graffiti spreads higher and higher on the walls of inner city buildings.
The city council is blaming a wave of tagging that has hit central Wellington on fine weather, road works and days off school.
Police say some taggers are even stopping on motorways to tag signs, then bragging about their escapades on videos posted on social networking sites.
The council, which already spends $400,000 a year on cleaning up tagging, is planning to set up a database to track taggers throughout the Wellington region.
Forty-one people have been prosecuted for tagging in the capital so far this year.
