No body-cam video in botched drug raid
When Houston police took part in the botched raid that killed two civilians and wounded four officers, there was no video from body cameras for investigators to examine.
Despite spending millions of dollars on the technology since 2014 and equipping patrol officers and uniformed street crime teams, police management has yet to deploy devices among undercover units engaged in the most dangerous tactical operations.
The department hasn’t purchased enough equipment or developed protocols for undercover teams — and requires officers to turn off their devices when conferring with undercover officers assigned to an investigative division about a tactical operation or briefing.
The practice denies accountability in drug raids and hostage situations, leaves officers who claim their actions were proper undefended, and ignores common-sense best practices even in some of the highest-risk situations, according to criminal justice experts.
“That’s outrageous,” said George Kirkham, a police officer and retired Florida State University criminology professor. “The prevalence, the inexpensiveness, the ready availability of them. … Certainly they should be used in situations like this, (so) we’re not left to guess at what happened; we can reconstruct it with precision.”
Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said the lack of body cams on raid teams is about priorities — the department wanted to equip street officers first.
“Our primary focus on camera deployment has been first on patrol and next on proactive street crime units,” he said. “Those are most likely to be involved in use of force cases.”
The push for body cameras started in 2015 when Houston City Council approved a $3.4 million contract with plans to buy 4,100 devices but put those plans on pause in 2017 after Acevedo raised concerns about issues with the cameras’ battery life.
The department currently has equipped 2,650 of the department’s 5,200 officers with the devices, said Kese Smith, an HPD spokesman. There are an additional 400 devices in reserve.
The question of when police should record interactions with the public arose again in Houston after the Jan. 28 drug bust that ended with two people dead and five officers injured — four by gunfire.
Police secured a no-knock warrant after a confidential informant bought what was reported as heroin at the house on Jan. 27, authorities said. The next day, police used that purchase as a key piece of their affidavit seeking the warrant.
The informant also warned police of a “large quantity” of drugs and a 9 mm handgun inside, the affidavit states.
Undercover narcotics officers burst into the suspected drug den the next day, and a gunfight immediately ensued. The house’s residents — Dennis Tuttle and his wife Rhogena Nicholas — were killed. Two of the four officers shot remain hospitalized.
Police said they found 18 grams of marijuana, 1.5 grams of cocaine, several firearms — but no heroin. Friends of the couple said they were not drug dealers. Police have relieved one officer of duty amid “ongoing questions” surrounding the bust and a probe into whether the affidavit may have contained false information, law enforcement sources said.