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GALVESTON, Texas—The disappearance of cash and drugs from the Galveston Police Department’s property room has prompted the dismissal of 16 cases and a Texas Rangers audit of 2,100 other cases.

Local officers began a criminal investigation after about $18,000 in cash and an undisclosed amount of cocaine, hydrocodone and Ecstasy disappeared from the property room last month.

A civilian employee was fired, but no one has been charged with any crime. City officials have declined to identify the fired employee. Charges likely won’t be filed until the state’s investigation is complete, said City Manager Steve LeBlanc.

Galveston County District Attorney Kurt Sistrunk and city and other county officials decided the evidence remaining in the property room should be examined by an outside law enforcement agency.

Starting later this month, 10 Rangers will spend about four weeks going through the evidence. They will work out of recreational vehicles parked outside police headquarters, LeBlanc said.

More local cases could be dismissed because of compromised evidence, LeBlanc said. The City Council has allocated up to $50,000 for the investigation, but LeBlanc said the investigation likely would cost less.

The investigators also will make recommendations about how evidence, including weapons and explosive materials, should be stored in the future.

LeBlanc promised the council that someone within the police department’s chain of command would be held responsible for any security or management deficiencies that made the property room theft possible.

The property room theft was the third blow to the department in recent months. Earlier this year, one of the department’s female employees sued the city, alleging repeated incidents of sexual harassment.

On March 16, residents were outraged after officers failed to control a postconcert traffic jam in the city that turned into a street party and mini-riot.