Why The Silence on Surveillance?

It's been 4 days since we first reported that the Harris County Sheriff's Office secretly surveilled the Ibarra Brothers for a few days in October 2007.  At the time the Ibarra Brothers were about to start a long awaited Civil Rights trial against the sheriff and Harris County.  The county ultimately settled that lawsuit for big money (just before the Sheriff was to be called to testify).  The county may now face another lawsuit over the surveillance.

Tonight on the TV side we reported that the detectives doing the surveillance never created any report or documentation on their surveillance trips.  The sheriff's office isn't answering any questions about that (they claim the DA is ordering them to stay quiet).

The problem is the Sheriff - the elected leader of the department - hasn't said a thing about this in 4 days.  It's not for a lack of trying.  We've called his office more times than I care to admit, gone to his house, shown up at events.  He is simply making himself unavailable.

As is virtually every leader of county government.

We finally tracked down Judge Ed Emmett today at a luncheon.  He tells us this is an issue for the Sheriff and would not weigh in on whether it's appropriate to use county resources to surveil plaintiffs. 
You agree?

I am curious what you think?  Is this a larger issue about county resources and proper use?  Is it an election issue?  Is it a civil rights violation?

Sometimes when I get in to a story for the third or fourth day, it begins to become a bubble and I can't see what's outside.  What do we need to ask that hasn't been asked and what are you still curious about?

Comments

[drew]

Ted...dig dig dig! The abuse of power and corruption is nauseating. What I understand of Sheriff Thomas is that the Harris County Sheriff's Office is HIS and HE is the law and above the laws of man. He is a shady creep. As for Ed Emmit, again, another power-hog. Dont let them get away with this stuff.

[DM]

Ted...What is this ISU? Is it legal for the Sheriff's deputies to spy on people when they have no intention of filing criminal charges? Who else has this "super secret" unit spied on? Political enemies of the Sheriff? Are there civil rights violations here? Dig dig dig!!

[ct]

What was the purpose of this spying? Sounds like some Stazi stuff to me... who else they been looking at? Are they keeping "secret" files on citizens too? And this is the same Sheriff who delted hundreds of e-mails so as to avoid the truth? Sounds like something for the Feds to snoop into.