Murals on public buildings are helping to combat the scourge of vandals and their spray cans.Wollongong City Council approved three murals on public buildings last year and the council's community partnerships and safety co-ordinator, Armando Reviglio, said the initiative was paying off."One of the buildings was having tags painted on it every second day, then (after the mural was painted) it didn't have any (tags) for about 11 weeks," he said."The result was similar to another mural where we haven't had any reports of graffiti since we've done a large community mural."Mr Reviglio asked the Mercury not to name the location of the murals so as not to encourage vandalism, however he did say there were two in Wollongong's northern suburbs and one in the city's southern suburbs."We're about to do two more down south," he said.The large murals follow on from the success of artwork painted on RTA signal boxes three years ago and bus shelters last year."With the RTA signal boxes, about 95 per cent of them haven't been tagged which is an excellent result over that period of time," he said.The key to keeping taggers and vandals from using the murals as a canvas was community involvement."What we found was you need community involvement and ownership of the murals to some degree," he said."We target primary schools, youth groups or other interested community members. (They then commit) to look after the murals and they inform police or us if they are vandalised."Generally (the artworks) are respected by other graffiti artists, although not necessarily taggers."Mr Reviglio estimated the council was spending about 20 per cent less on cleaning up graffiti because of the murals.The council is now trialling a service to ratepayers where graffiti is removed from property by people with a disability. It is also considering a scheme where people on periodic detention work in conjunction with council to remove graffiti from homes and businesses."Graffiti is an under-reported crime, people should report it to the police or council," Mr Reviglio said.To report graffiti call the council on 4227 7816, email graffiti@wollongong.nsw.gov.au or phone Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.