An investigation in racial and homophobic bias involved 14 police officers in San Francisco is being expanded to include 3,000 arrests that may have been influenced by their alleged biases.

District Attorney George Gascon said that the cases may have resulted in wrongful convictions, and he was adding three former judges to a task force that would look into whether prosecutions were a result of bias, according to an Associated Press report.

The text messages between the police officers often featured slurs against a variety of racial and ethnic groups, including blacks, Mexicans, Filipinos, and homosexuals. The phrase “white power” is often used.

They were discovered after former San Francisco police Sgt. Ian Furminger was convicted of corruption, resulting in a probe that uncovered the texts and eventually implicated more officers.

The judges joining Gascon’s task force are experienced in civil rights and criminal justice reform and will thus have the tools necessary to delve into this sensitive issue, Gascon said. All three judges are from outside of the San Francisco area and will do the work for free, with the investigation scheduled to be completed by the end of the year.

Of the 14 officers, Police Chief Greg Suhr last month asked for approval for fire seven officers from the police oversight committee, and another officer resigned. The remaining six are facing discipline that includes reassignment to a desk job.

The task force will examine cases dating as early as a decade ago involving officers writing a report and submitting evidence, as well as testifying in court, to see if there is any indication that racial or anti-gay bias played a role in any of the convictions.

The judges who were asked to assist with the task force are Justice Cruz Reynoso, Judge LaDoris Hazzard Cordell and Judge Dickran Tevrizian Jr. They will begin with cases that involved jail sentences, and move down from there. Gascon estimated that 60 to 70 cases have already been identified involving people who are currently incarcerated, although that number is likely to change, he said according to a San Francisco Appeal report.

Officer Ian Furminger was convicted on four felony charges based on incidents of theft of money and property taken from drug suspects in 2009, which led to police looking into text messages he sent. They found exchanges between him and 14 other officers that contained a shocking level of racism and homophobia, resulting in the upcoming probe.

Gascon said he wanted to bring in judges from outside the city because he had concerns that there were deeper systemic issues in the police department, and he wanted an appearance of complete impartiality.

And while the goal is to complete the work by the end of the year, the judges won’t rush their work and will take the time they need to complete all reviews thoroughly, he said. Once the reviews are complete, a report with the task force’s findings will be released to the public.

Of particular concern to Gascon was that the text messages were only made public in March despite the fact that the police department had access to them all the way back in 2012, which suggests that people prosecuted since December 2012 could have involved officers who had been participating in such text messages but had not been removed from cases where racial and anti-gay bias could have come into play.

Gascon referenced recent alleged police brutality incidents in Baltimore, State Island, South Carolina, and Ferguson, Missouri, as evidence that when police officers behave poorly, it can have serious effects on public safety and public trust, especially for minorities.

Rev. Amos Brown of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People praised the decision to use outside judges on the task force as a serious effort for seeking transparency. He slammed the “demeaning” text messages sent by police officers, saying it fits in with a pattern of black people being treated poorly in the city, as blacks make up a large percentage of inmates despite making up a small portion of the population. He said the task force gives him hope that justice will be served.