Annapolis police are trying to stop these vandals from leaving their marks on buildings in the city.

Over the past month, police have found six instances of graffiti in the downtown area. The markings generally appear after 9 p.m. and are found on back alleys and the sides of buildings.

Some of it, like the markings left in the alley behind Nostalgia Cupcakes overnight Sept. 11, seems racially motivated, police said.

Others appear to be a teenager's way of leaving his mark, or "tagging." None of it appears to be gang-related, police said.

Police Chief Michael A. Pristoop said through a spokesman that the department is aware of the problem and working toward a resolution, deploying officers to problem areas at the right times in the hopes of catching taggers in the act.

"We take this very seriously," he said through the spokesman.

Meanwhile, the City Council also is considering new laws to help combat the situation.

The six downtown incidents aren't the only places that have been hit. On Aug. 30, someone wrote an anti-Semitic slur on the side of an Annapolis synagogue.

Police were called to Congregation Kneseth Israel on Spa Road at about 8 p.m. after a representative of the synagogue reported graffiti written in pencil on a wall nearest the entrance to the facility.

Police found the words, attacking members of the Jewish faith, scribbled on the building. The graffiti misspelled the word Jew as "Juew."

In another incident that same day, two juveniles were arrested after spray-painting a Dumpster at Forest Hills Apartments. A witness called police, who found the two sitting on a curb nearby with the spray cans behind them and paint on their hands. Both were cited and released to their fathers.

Police department spokesman Ray Weaver said police have an intelligence unit working on graffiti problems. They've been able to get some video footage of taggers, but they've been too blurry to be of much use.

Police also plan to ask City Council to make it illegal for people to possess "graffiti tools."

"Of course we can't make it against the law to have a can of spray paint," Weaver said, explaining that details of the possible legislation have to be hammered out.

After a rash of graffiti struck the city in February, when 25 locations were hit and 100 incidents recorded over a four-day period, the City Council took up a proposed ordinance on the issue. The bill defines the crime as defacing via "drawing, inscribing, painting, scratching, scribbling, or writing upon any wall or surface owned, operated or maintained by a person or the city."

The crime, classified a misdemeanor, would carry a $250 fine for first-time offenders and up to $1,000 for repeat offenders plus up to 90 days in jail.

The legislation was introduced in April and will come before the council's Public Safety Committee tonight, said panel chairman Alderman David Cordle, R-Ward 5.

"Once we nail one or two people and the word gets out … hopefully it will be a deterrent," he said of the penalties.

He said he expects the legislation will be discussed by the full council at its Oct. 5 meeting.

Cordle also said he would likely sponsor the legislation the police department brought up about making it illegal for a minor to possess "graffiti tools."

That legislation would most likely make having a spray-paint can or marker a secondary offense that would go along with an incident of graffiti, he said