HARLINGEN — Raul Reyes is winning the battle against graffiti in town.
Once spray paint marks are spotted, he’s there the next morning to knock it off with his power washer gun until it looks like the graffiti was never there.
It’s a job he’s been working hard at to help “Keep Harlingen Beautiful” for the past 10 years.
Now, Reyes, 62, has some better equipment to do the job. He is taking down graffiti with the Harlingen Police Department’s newest graffiti removal truck.
The truck was purchased with seized drug moneys. It carries a high-powered pressure washer to remove graffiti from playscapes, overpasses, sidewalks, buildings and more.
“It’s a lot better and the power washer line is a lot longer,” Reyes said about the new truck. “It’s just better equipped than the one I used in the past.”
Most of his day is spent cleaning up any of the seven city parks or neighborhoods in town.
“I like to clean up the graffiti for families to come and enjoy a nice clean park,” Reyes said.
HPD follows the broken windows theory in keeping the city of Harlingen clean and free from graffiti. If you don’t fix the broken window, the idea goes, it only invites more crime or disorder to the neighborhood. He keeps it clean so citizens can take pride in the city — and to be a deterrent to further damage.
“I will clean off homeowner’s property with graffiti with their permission,” Reyes said.
On Thursday morning, Reyes cleared off graffiti at Hunter Park and Rangerville Road Park. The parks had the same three letters labeled on public property.
At Hunter Park he cleared off the letters “WSK” from the playground slide and picnic table.
And at Rangerville Park he cleared off the same lettering off the concrete at the park’s pavilion.
“Every day is a different day,” Reyes said. “But it’s not as bad as it used to be.”
Reyes said in the past he has cleared up sides of buildings and private fences in the city alleyways.
“I have cleared up wall-to-wall graffiti,” Reyes said. “They would come back and graffiti it again, but I would come back and clean it up again.”
He said eventually they stopped.
If you know an area with graffiti needing to be cleaned up or covered up, contact Sgt. Jaime Palafox at 956-216-5492 or email him at [email protected].
