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The Associated Press

HOUSTON—For months, maybe years, people with criminal backgrounds had access to secure areas of the police station, including a property room from which 30 guns disappeared within six months, according to internal police documents.

The documents, obtained by the Houston Chronicle, indicated that lax security created an environment ripe for theft.

No one has been charged in the gun thefts, although police suspected telephone repairmen who admitted stealing other items, and a temporary employee who had access to the property room while awaiting trial on aggravated robbery charges.

Police say they have improved security including adding cameras, and they plan to open a new, $13.8 million property room next year. “We feel all the holes in security have been closed and the property room is safe,” Craig Ferrell, HPD’s general counsel, told the Chronicle.

Police Chief Harold Hurtt publicly acknowledged the loss of the guns in April 2007, but his department has offered scant details since then. Ferrell declined to comment on the department’s investigation because of possible lawsuits.

The department fired one civilian property room supervisor on May 9, and another retired weeks ago rather than face a continuing investigation. Lawyers for the supervisors blamed the thefts on the lack of monitoring cameras and the access granted to people who had not undergone background checks.