Amid a wave of workplace rumors and leaks to the media over a bungled no-knock drug raid in January, the Houston Police Department launched an internal probe into dozens of officers for looking up personal information of a narcotics supervisor and another officer linked to the operation.

The investigation, which came several weeks after the Jan. 28 raid, scrutinized 37 officers and civilian employees accused of reviewing the pair’s information in the police department’s personnel database, according to records obtained by the Houston Chronicle and interviews with people familiar with the probe.

Months later, 17 people were disciplined with so-called “supervisory interventions,” a warning that is less severe than a written reprimand, according to Doug Griffith, a vice president of the Houston Police Officers’ Union.

Griffith said investigators should have focused on more serious matters stemming from the raid at 7815 Harding Street that left two people dead and five police officers injured.

“We lost a lot of manpower hours on an investigation that had nothing to do with the Harding Street incident,” he said.

Chief Art Acevedo could not immediately be reached for comment.

Hunt for snoops

The narcotics supervisor filed the complaint in February, saying she believed officers were looking up her information without legitimate reasons, according to officials and documents reviewed by the Chronicle.

The supervisor said she became worried for her safety after learning that reporters were trying to contact her.

The department’s May 30 report summarizing the investigation shows that employees including rank-and-file officers, mid-rank supervisors and one commander were accused of looking up information on the Police Personnel System.

Officers provided a variety of explanations for why they looked up their colleagues’ information, ranging from filling a public records request to asking for her help on a theft investigation, according to the report. Several officers told investigators they looked up the information to “quash” rumors spreading about the Harding Street shooting.

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Other officers admitted looking out of curiosity, records show.

Internal investigators sustained allegations of “improper computer use” against 17 officers and a former employee who had already resigned and moved out of state. The department could not sustain charges — meaning there was insufficient evidence to prove or disprove the allegations — against five officers. Fourteen officers and employees were exonerated, according to the report.

The “supervisory interventions” will disappear from officers’ personnel files after six months, officials said.

Professor Phillip Lyons, dean of the College of Criminal Justice at Sam Houston State University and a former police officer, said the department has an obligation to investigate when officers file complaints against their peers.

“Whether the punishment is too lenient or too severe, or just right, I wouldn't be in a position to know,” he said. “But it does seem to me as though, if there is a complaint that is filed, and the complaint alleges a policy or law violation, and evidence sustains the complaint, they have to do something.”

Internal findings not released

The internal investigation was conducted simultaneously with another internal probe into the botched drug bust in southeast Houston.

The raid went awry almost immediately, with gunfire erupting moments after an undercover narcotics team broke down the door to the Harding Street home. Dennis Tuttle and his wife, Rhogena Nicholas, were killed and five officers were injured, including case agent Gerald Goines, who was shot in the neck.

The operation turned up a small amount of cocaine and marijuana — but none of the heroin police said the couple was dealing. Investigators have since raised questions about whether the confidential drug buy cited in the search warrant affidavit ever happened, or if the informant even existed.

Six months later, the ramifications of the raid continue to unfurl: Goines has since retired under investigation, as has his partner, Steven Bryant. The FBI launched a civil rights investigation into the incident, while District Attorney Kim Ogg announced prosecutors were reviewing more than 2,000 cases previously handled by Goines and Bryant and dismissed dozens of the two officers’ active cases.

The police department has turned over its internal investigation into the shooting to the DA’s office but has not publicly released the findings. Acevedo has said the department has completed an audit of the Narcotics Division, but the department has yet to release the findings.

While Acevedo has said Goines — and potentially additional officers — could face criminal charges, the DA’s office has yet to file charges in the case. A federal grand jury recently subpoenaed three officers, including the narcotics officer and her colleague, to testify about the case.

Still, the records investigation surprised some law enforcement veterans. Former chief Charles A. McClelland recalled officers frequently used the system to find colleagues’ contact information to discuss extra jobs or other issues.

“I have no information on this internal affairs investigations, but just from my personal experience, officers from time to time are curious and look up coworkers information,” he said.

As chief, he ordered a yearly audit of officers who’d researched his information, he said.

“There was always a list of officers who’d researched me through HPD computers,” he said. “But I never launched an investigation into them.”

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