A Seattle police officer accused of contacting three women whose phone numbers he pulled out of police reports was fired Thursday.

A Seattle police officer was fired Thursday after three women who encountered him on duty complained of unwanted advances.

Officer Peter Leutz, 44, is alleged to have contacted the women through phone calls and text messages. He asked them out on dates, complimented them, suggested one woman end her relationship with her boyfriend and in another instance sent at least 109 text messages to one of the three women, according to a police disciplinary report.

In a letter hand-delivered to Leutz on Thursday, Police Chief Kathleen O’Toole told the former officer he engaged in “serious and repeated abuse of authority, and an unsettling pattern of behavior, some of it directed at women who you knew from the outset, or learned early on, may have been especially vulnerable given turmoil in their personal lives.”

O’Toole, in the letter, told Leutz he should have never used personal information he was given as a police officer to “pursue romantic relationships.”

“I simply cannot allow this police service to be represented by an individual who committed this level of serious misconduct,” O’Toole wrote in the letter, dated Wednesday. “I do not have sufficient trust in your judgment or faith in your future conduct to ever send you back into the field as a police officer.”

Pierce Murphy, who heads the department’s Office of Professional Accountability (OPA), said that when his office was notified by one of the three women in August about Leutz contacting her, he “recognized the potential gravity of the allegation.” Soon after, a second woman contacted his office to report similar behavior by the officer and Murphy told his staff to start investigating.

Murphy asked his staff to go through Leutz’s “activity records” — police reports he wrote and calls he was dispatched to last summer — and contact people he had interacted with.

“I quickly realized the importance of that complaint,” Murphy said. “Police officers, by the nature of their job and the way we ask them to investigate crime, are given access to private information. They interact with people in a power imbalance situation.”

It was through that investigation that OPA found the third woman whom Leutz is alleged to have made “extracurricular contact with,” Murphy said.

“This did not cross the line into criminal behavior, but this behavior is consistent with any other profession where the professional is in a position of authority and they use that power or access for their own purposes. This just isn’t bad taste; it’s misuse of authority,” Murphy said.

According to the disciplinary-action report, released to The Seattle Times on Friday morning under a public-disclosure request, Leutz came into contact with the women “through legitimate police interactions” on July 17, Aug. 4 and 10.

The report gives this description:

The woman he met July 17 told investigators that she had contacted police to report her bike had been stolen. Leutz contacted the woman via text to ask her “to get together socially.” The woman declined. She was contacted by OPA after investigators looked into the two other incidents.

The woman he met Aug. 4 told investigators that Leutz had come to her apartment after she had been arguing with her boyfriend; she had spent the night outside their apartment waiting to see their newborn child.

Leutz left a domestic-violence pamphlet with the woman and soon after started calling and texting her on his personal cellphone. In the messages he offered relationship advice, called her “cute and sassy” and said he wanted to “hug and comfort her.”

The woman he met Aug. 10 told investigators that she met Leutz after he pulled her over during a traffic stop. She said 40 minutes after giving her a warning he showed up at her house, in his patrol car.

She said he gave her his personal cellphone number. Over the next 39 days he sent her at least 109 text messages; in them he complimented her looks, repeatedly requested they meet in person and asked in one of the messages: “Did u feel something when we locked eyes.”

Murphy said he recommended to O’Toole that Leutz be terminated.

Leutz, who was hired by the department in May 2005, can appeal the decision, said Ron Smith, president of the Seattle Police Officers’ Guild.

Smith declined to comment further.

Leutz made headlines in 2007 after shooting and wounding a 13-year-old boy while responding to a suspicious circumstances call.

Leutz was on patrol near the 2500 block of East Yesler Way around 3 a.m. when he saw two teenage boys run. Leutz chased them in his patrol car to South Washington Street and 26th Avenue South.

Leutz then shined a spotlight on the youths and ordered them to put their hands up, police said.

One boy, 14, complied, police said.

But the 13-year-old acted “very agitated” and didn’t listen to the officer, who repeated his orders several times, a police official said at the time.

He took off his jacket and threw it on the ground, then lifted up his T-shirt, reached into a pocket and pulled out a black object. The 13-year-old then moved toward Leutz, police said.

Believing the boy had a gun, Leutz fired twice, striking the boy in the lower and upper leg. The black object was later found to be a cellphone in a black case.

The shooting was found to be justified, a police spokesman said.

In March 2009, Leutz’s ex-wife filed a petition for a restraining order against him, claiming his “escalating” behavior “frightened” her.

A restraining order was granted; a week later Leutz filed for divorce.