HPD's new assistant chief is under investigation for missing city property valued at $25K, docs say

KINGWOOD, Texas (KTRK) -- One of the newly-promoted Houston police assistant chiefs is under investigation after property valued at $25,000 went missing from a police substation.

Adrian Rodriguez was promoted in April following the demotions from HPD's suspended case scandal. He was last assigned as the commander at the Kingwood substation on Rustic Woods Drive.

Last November, the security gates in the back parking lot were taken down and replaced by sleek new ones. The old gates were left in a grassy area for months. Then, over the weekend of March 23rd, sources tell ABC13 they disappeared.

ABC13 obtained part of the Internal Affairs Division (IAD) report that states Rodriguez asked a liaison with the City of Houston General Services Department if he could take the property because "he wanted to put them in his ditch at home."

ABC13 requested surveillance video from HPD from the weekend the gates were taken. The request was denied and referred to the Texas Attorney General's Office for a decision.

In the referral letter, the department confirmed "an open investigation being conducted by the HPD's Internal Affairs Division of alleged improper police procedure by a police officer."

The City of Houston has a 7-page Asset Disposition Procedure for the disposal of property that is "excess, obsolete, worn or scrap."

Unless approved, all of it is supposed to end up at a city warehouse on Broad Street in southeast Houston.

There, much of it becomes available to taxpayers to buy at auction. Impounded vehicles, paper trays, and old uniform tops are some of what's available right now.

Only after ABC13 requested records on the whereabouts of the discarded gates, was a police report filed.

The report is dated June 20, three months after the gates were removed. The City of Houston is the complainant. It is categorized as a theft and the estimated value of the gates is $25,000.

Chief Rodriguez is not allowed to talk about active IAD investigations, per policy. HPOU called the investigation minor.

However, the portion of the IAD report that ABC13 has provides more context. The liaison said he gave Rodriguez permission. "I believed I was allowing Chief Rodriguez to take smaller broken pieces of gate material that should have already been disposed of by the contractor," he wrote. "I did not know they were entire gate panels."

HPD does not comment on IAD probes and Friday said that Asst. Chief Rodriguez's status is "active."

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