HOUSTON – Last summer, Houston Police Department rank-and-file got a video message from the boss, Chief Art Acevedo. The video is dated July 2018 and the chief is addressing the issue of officers being arrested and charged with driving under the influence.
“We still have our family members, our employees, our officers going out and drunk driving,” the chief said.
In the video, the chief also addressed the issue of officers being accused of giving civilians who were driving under the influence a pass on the streets.
“Unfortunately (we) have seen quite a few internal affairs cases where we’re absolutely kissing off drunk driving," the chief said in the video.
Houston police declined to cite the exact number of internal affairs investigations triggered by accusations of officers not properly handling DUI cases. However, during a recent interview with Channel 2 Investigates, Acevedo said officers accused of this conduct and who then lied about the circumstances have been terminated.
“We owe it to our employees and their families to make sure they understand the expectations of our department,” Acevedo said during the recent interview.
Since Acevedo was sworn in Nov. 30, 2016, and until his video message was produced, HPD records show internal affairs investigations sustained complaints against eight officers for DWI. After the chief put out his video, KPRC found at least six more HPD officers were charged with driving under the influence. Some of the more publicized cases involved Cassandra Crosby and Artie Weathers; both were accused of having children in the car while driving under the influence. Former HPD officer Claude Jackson was accused of trying to run from deputy constables.
In September, the chief sent a department-wide email with the subject line, “Are you your brother/sisters’ keeper? Are you??”
In the email the chief wrote, “There is no excuse for DWI,” and “this behavior continues to impact our organization.”
“We don’t grow officers in petri dishes, we have the same problems as everybody else,” Acevedo said.
Acevedo said the difference is HPD now has a zero tolerance for officers accused of driving under the influence and added some of his officers may not have realized this until last year.
“It did surprise me that the level of accountability from previous administrations, where they allowed officers to have more than one bite at the apple,” Acevedo said.
Acevedo said zero tolerance is not directly tied to whether a person is convicted in court.
“You can commit administrative DWI,” Acevedo said. “I can’t control what the court does, but I can control what we do.”
“Is it a public trust issue?” asked Channel 2 Investigator Robert Arnold.
“Oh, absolutely. How do you go testify on a DWI, when you yourself are out there committing it?” Acevedo said.
Larry Karson, a retired customs agent and criminal justice lecturer at the University of Houston-Downtown, said “Trust is critical to the function of a police department.”
Karson said a community’s lack of trust in a police department can have a far-reaching impact.
“People won’t be witnesses, won’t report certain crimes,” Karson said.
Karson also said a lot of the public’s trust in a law enforcement agency comes from how a department handles officers accused of crossing the line.
“What they now expect the department to do is address it appropriately,” Karson said.
For some, trust in HPD was fractured following the disastrous Harding Street raid in January, in which four officers were shot and two people were killed. Community outrage then followed accusations that an officer lied on an affidavit used to obtain the warrant that led to the raid.
Karson said he believes rebuilding that trust will come through HPD publicly sharing, not just the findings of its internal investigation, but what policy changes the department may make because of what happened at the house.
“That transparency of telling people that you recognize you did something wrong and you’re trying to fix it,” Karson said.
Acevedo said he will no longer discuss details of the probe until the investigation into the circumstances surrounding the raid is complete. So far, two officers have been relieved of duty during the investigation and Acevedo made changes to certain policies regarding raids.
“Our job starts with trust,” Acevedo said.
Acevedo said the findings of HPD’s investigation will be fully shared with the public and, just as with DWI cases, if an officer is found to have crossed the line, there will be no leniency.
“That’s what everything we do should be about, building that trust,” Acevedo said.
The chief said there likely will be more changes to policies and procedures following the Harding Street raid.
“Changes that minimize (and) reduce the likelihood of a similar incident occurring,” Acevedo said.
In the interim, Acevedo said only he or an executive assistant chief can approve whether an officer will be allowed to ask a judge for a "no knock" warrant, which was the type of warrant secured for the raid on Harding Street. The chief declined to discuss what exactly was the procedure for handling "no knock" warrants prior to his changes, but did say he felt the vast majority were handled safely.
Acevedo also now requires all officers conducting raids to wear body cameras.