THEY are known by their street names – Sake, 3 Rez, Tracks, Swift, Divide, The Joker.

These boys are all over Hereford, probably the most prolific graffiti “artists” the city has produced.

But when one innovative city police officer went after them, the writing was on the wall.

The Still Free Crew was the blight of the High Town beat and barely a day went by without PC John Yarwood taking a complaint about its work.

One night earlier this year, the teen taggers went too far, blitzing a large section of the city centre, and Operation Deal was launched to turn their own work against them.

Photos put them in frame – pictures taken by police of specific styles and tags.

PC Yarwood and his colleagues then went online where the taggers were boasting – or promoting – their work on websites.

With the sites accessed, Operation Deal officers could trawl back through the net and trace the taggers through their modem addresses.

This hi-tech approach was taking time until some old-fashioned policing brought a breakthrough.

A night patrol caught two kids on the rooftops in Aubrey Street and they had a paint can and brush with them.

That was enough for Operation Deal to get a warrant. The house searches struck gold – cards and boards detailing the very tags and designs that the team was tracking over the net.

These weren’t bad youngsters but a handful of would-be artists caught up in a “cultural thing”.

Though what they were doing was a crime, it didn’t blind Operation Deal to their talent.

Now, PC Yarwood is talking to the council about the possibility of providing “legal” walls where that talent can be expressed.

Meanwhile, the law is taking its course.

So far, seven teenagers have been through the system over the tagging. Most received reprimands and cautions.

Two went to the youth court, where they were ordered to pay £500 in compensation and £60 in costs each.

They have also got to go round the city cleaning off their handiwork as part of a 12-month community order.

On his beat, PC Yarwood says the rate at which graffiti is going up seems to have slowed down since Operation Deal.

But new names still have designs on the city.