HOUSTON—
Constable Pct. 7's graffiti abatement program rolled out a new truck, prowling the streets of East Houston, to clean up unsightly graffiti.Constable Victor Trevino said the East End was wrought with graffiti and nothing was spared, both homes and businesses were targeted.
"Over 10 years ago in this area you would see graffiti all over, and we would assign deputies to go out there and there was no way, we were overwhelmed," said Trevino.
The problem seemed to be out of control until 2001 when the graffiti clean-up abatement program started. Since then more than 22,000 graffiti sites have been cleaned up.
Graffiti is removed a couple different ways depending on the surface it has been sprayed on. If the graffiti is on a painted surface the clean-up crew will try to match the paint color, and paint over it. If it's on a fence or a metal surface they will spray a chemical on it then power wash it away.
Clean-up crews say they stay busy. As soon as one site is cleaned up another one pops up.
"Graffiti is a never ending battle," said clean-up team member Martin Chavez. "It's a problem that the city is dealing with. I think were doing a really good job to help the city stay clean," he said.
