HOUSTON -- Dozens of Houston police officers are being investigated for their online activities while on duty, KPRC Local 2 Investigates reported.

Some officers could be suspended or punished for spending hours on the Internet taking college courses while they were supposed to be patrolling Houston streets.

HPD officers are being encouraged to further their education, and degrees can mean fatter paychecks. Several colleges, such as University of Phoenix and Mountain State University, are offering courses that can be completed online. With University of Phoenix, chat room sessions are scheduled for some courses and a student has to be online at a certain time to be counted present.

Numerous officers admitted to KPRC Local 2 that they have been logging on whenever they can, sometimes during their on-duty hours.

Houston City Council Member Adrian Garcia, a former HPD officer, reacted to the KPRC report.

"You gotta respect your shift, and for eight hours you're on the taxpayer's dole, and so you need to respect that," he said.

HPD Internal Affairs investigators are now reviewing dozens of officers' timecards and Internet access records, as this widespread practice now falls under the microscope.

"We're going to look at each incident and if there are some issues where it's really aggravated, of course, we're going to take the appropriate action," said Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt.

One officer who is being investigated told KPRC Local 2 he always cleared it with his supervisor when he was required to be online for class chat sessions during his duty hours. The officer said he would then shift his work hours so that taxpayers got the full eight hours of work.

Another officer said he never chatted for classes while on duty, but he would routinely log on to check his grades or assignments in between calls. That officer said, "it's just like any job" where people login for quick personal reasons in between tasks.

The police chief seems to be fine with that sort of limited Internet usage.

"Maybe if there's someone that was on for two or three seconds or whatever to check something during the duty hours, I think it would be better for them to do that than have to go pick up the phone somewhere and call a professor and ask a question if they can get that information and go back to work," Hurtt said.

Hurtt said those officers may only receive a warning so that no abuses happen in the future.

Some officers were seen logging on for classes inside or near the Houston Police Officers Union hall downtown, but union President Hans Marticiuc told KPRC Local 2 he has now shut down the union's wireless Internet hot spot after hours to keep officers from getting into deeper trouble.

Some officers complained that the existing HPD policy is unclear, since the city wants them to further their education. Hurtt said there are no plans to change the policy.

"I think the general orders and expectations are pretty clear," he said. "We expect them to perform their jobs when they're supposed to be working for the city."