You lie, you die.

That’s been Art Acevedo’s mantra ever since he became Houston’s police chief over two years ago. It’s a warning to his 5,200 sworn law enforcement officers that dishonesty and dirty policing will not be tolerated.

But last month’s disastrous drug raid that claimed the lives of a husband and wife of 21 years reminds us that when cops violate sacred trust, more than their careers are at stake.

In this case, cops lied, and people died.

Dennis Tuttle, a 59-year-old Navy veteran, and Rhogena Nicholas, 58, were shot dead, along with their dog, by Houston Police Department officers in a chaotic, violent no-knock raid that never should have happened.

Soon after the raid, which left five officers injured when the couple fired back, some Pecan Park residents claimed the deceased couple were longtime residents who didn’t deal drugs.

Police secured the no-knock warrant based on a confidential informant’s drug buy. But investigators are unable to locate the informant who claimed a “large quantity” of drugs packaged for sale inside the house. Officers found little more than a half-ounce of marijuana and 1.5 grams of cocaine.

Suspicions of foul play were all but confirmed late Friday when Acevedo announced that an internal investigation had found that the search warrant used to justify the raid was falsified. He said veteran narcotics case agent Gerald Goines, would likely face criminal charges for lying about using a confidential informant to conduct the buy on Harding Street.

What’s more, undercover officer Steven Bryant, who Goines had claimed witnessed the drug buy and identified the product as heroin, later told investigators he retrieved two bags of heroin from Goines’ car and had not seen them purchased by any informant.

It gets worse. Chronicle reporters Keri Blakinger and St. John Barned-Smith reported late Friday that Goines has a track record so troubling as to make us wonder why he was still on the streets: Involvement in multiple shootings, a litany of written reprimands and he had faced several lawsuits. Most significantly, Goines is currently accused of fabricating a drug deal, then lying about it in court to win a conviction against a man who has long maintained innocence.

At this point, police seem to be clinging to a single shred of evidence against the deceased couple: a 911 call of a woman who claimed her daughter was using heroin at the location. Chronicle reporters requested the recording, but HPD has appealed to the attorney general to keep it secret.

Enough secrets. Acevedo told the editorial board late Saturday that his hesitation in releasing it involves concerns from the Tuttle family. That’s an important consideration. But Houston deserves answers. Trust has been shattered. Residents need to see that the police chief and Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg will respond to this deep breach of trust with transparency. They should release the tape.

That said, Acevedo seems to be doing much internally to get to the bottom of the debacle and prevent another one: “This tragedy will not be in vain,” he said.

In interviews with the editorial board, Acevedo vowed to hold Goines accountable for any state crimes committed: “It could be tampering with a government record. It could be perjury. It could be murder. It runs the gamut.”

That’s almost astonishing to hear considering the long history in Harris County of covering up police wrongdoing and declining for years to indict officers involved in hundreds of shootings of civilians.

Acevedo also said he planned to increase the scrutiny around no-knock warrants to require executive-level approval in most cases. We encourage the chief to end them altogether. He noted himself last week that if suspects can flush their drugs by the time police enter a residence, they probably didn’t have enough drugs to warrant busting down doors.

Acevedo has also ordered a review of all officers in narcotics and vice, including their history of complaints and use of force. He says he didn’t know Goines when he lauded his strength after he was injured in the shooting: “One day I’m saying this guy’s a hero and three weeks later, I’m condemning him. If that doesn’t speak to ‘we call them as we see them,’ I don’t know what does.”

He defended his decision not to allow an external investigation by another agency, saying “if we can’t investigate ourselves, then we’re in trouble.” But he opened the door to the FBI in one area: “If they want to come based on what we’ve already uncovered and conduct a civil rights probe into the officer who lied, I would welcome that.”

At this point, we’re encouraged by Acevedo’s response, but we’ll be watching to see if his probe answers vital questions, leads to urgent policy changes and brings to justice the officers whose actions led to two civilian deaths and injuries of fellow officers. HPD should seriously review the use of confidential informants, tell us why narcotics officers didn’t wear body cameras and ensure that they start.

Police union representatives caution that Goines and Bryant are innocent until proven guilty. So were Tuttle and Nicholas. But they were killed before they got a chance to prove it.

Fatal consequences of the grave police failings in this case cannot be reversed. The breach of trust will take years to repair — and it will only happen with brutal honesty and integrity from Acevedo, Ogg, and Mayor Sylvester Turner, the leaders of those sworn to keep us safe.