Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo announced a slew of reforms for his department’s Narcotics Division in a tweet, hours after Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said 69 defendants convicted on the testimony of former drug cop Gerald Goines might have their cases overturned.

The changes announced Wednesday require more rigorous oversight and signoff from supervisors for narcotics operations, tighter controls on confidential informants and payments, and memorialize the already-announced requirement of high-level approval for “no-knock” raids like the fatal Harding Street one led by Goines early last year.

Acevedo did not comment on the policy revisions Wednesday.

The police department spent months working on a now-completed audit of the Narcotics Division, but Acevedo has yet to release the results of that review, which the Chronicle has requested.

The changes come 13 months after the Harding Street raid, which left two people dead and five officers injured.

During that January 2019 incident, Houston police burst into a small home in Pecan Park looking for heroin. Instead, a firefight erupted, ending with the deaths of homeowners Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas and injuries to five officers. The Harris County District Attorney’s Office, the Houston Police Department, and the FBI all launched probes into the incident, and in the weeks afterward, authorities said Goines had lied about numerous elements about the incident, including a critical drug buy he used as the basis for the raid. Goines has since been charged with murder.

In the months since, two men incarcerated because of Goines’ testimony and casework have seen their cases overturned.

Houston Chronicle articles since the raid have shown supervision failures on cases in which Goines was involved, as well as information from internal police department audits that described problems in oversight of confidential informant funds.

Wrong Door: Botched Houston drug raid not the first

The new protocols require narcotics lieutenants to be present when officers execute forced-entry warrants, according to the department’s announcement, in which the police department said it would not release additional details.

Several reforms dealt with the department’s oversight of informants, including annual arrest/criminal activity checks to “assess continued suitability and reliability.”

The changes also include the creation of an electronic case management system to track cases - which had previously been kept on paper. Goines’ past employee evaluations showed supervisors criticized his record-keeping.

The new policies also require officers to file additional documentation of their contacts with informants, including all conversations (electronic and in person), and a face-to-face review of each officer’s informants by their lieutenants.

The changes also require supervisors — including the division’s commander — to review search and arrest warrant tactical plans. In federal court last year, an FBI agent testified Goines had lied on the search warrant that was the basis for the raid, as well as a “tactical plan,” the document a narcotics officer prepares in advance of a raid which describes how they plan to carry out the operation.

During that hearing, the same FBI agent testified that when they interviewed Goines’ CIs, the informants all denied ever having bought drugs from Tuttle. The agent also revealed that Goines’ CI alleged that she and the former drug cop had engaged in a years-long sexual relationship and that agents discovered he had visited the informant alone, a violation of basic police protocol.

In addition to the state court murder charges, Goines is charged with civil rights violations in federal court. His former partner, Steven Bryant, faces state and federal charges for tampering with government records. Both men maintain their innocence.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Documents show oversight lapses in Houston PD’s handling of confidential informants

The department’s tweet also included previously announced reforms including:

Requiring officers to explicitly seek approval for “no-knock” warrants from the chief of police or one of his immediate subordinates, the creation of a special warrant execution team “provide a uniformed enforcement component in the Narcotics Division,” and requiring officers to seek search warrants from district judges or a 24-hour magistrate, rather than municipal court judges, and changes requiring narcotics officers wear body cameras.

Earlier in February, Harris County prosecutors said two men arrested in 2008 and convicted because of Goines’ casework were actually innocent. Attorneys for the two men, Otis and Steven Mallet, showed that Goines filed expense reports that conflicted with the story presented in the offense reports used in their arrest.

Defense attorneys said the policy changes were a noteworthy step toward making the department more transparent but failed to address a key problem revealed in by the Harding Street raid.

“I applaud any attempt to strengthen transparency and accountability within the police department,” said Jonathan Landers, who represented one of the two men who saw their convictions overturned last month. “But we have to remember HPD already had rules requiring supervisor oversight and the accounting of police money in narcotics investigations, and it appears those rules weren’t being followed.”

“So really what we need to do is hold the Houston Police Department and its supervisors accountable for following their own rules.”

st.john.smith@chron.com

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