HPD Chief Finner addresses how 264,000 cases ended up suspended

HOUSTON - An update on the hundreds of thousands of incidents that were reported to the Houston Police Department and closed due to a shortage in staffing.

Houston Police Chief Troy Finner is apologizing to Houstonians who've had their cases suspended due to HPD being short-staffed, and he's explaining what he plans to do in an attempt to help them still get justice. However, the chief says it is too late for at least one victim who died by suicide.

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"I apologize to the victims, their families, our citizens. I want the survivors, their family members, and our community to know we're going to fix this. We've made a lot of progress in just a few weeks," says Chief Finner.

The 264,000 incidents reported to the Houston Police Department that were closed and coded "Suspended due to Lack of Manpower" since 2016 have been under review since late last month.

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"This code should have never been used, and it never will be used again," the Chief explains, and he says it particularly should not have been used for violent crimes.

The 264,000 cases marked with this code include 4,017 Sexual Assaults and 6,537 from Homicide, but the chief says most of those are assaults and threats. Before 2018, the Major Assaults division was in the Homicide Unit. Major Assaults, by the way, make up 109,000 of the incidents and 91,000 are from the Property and Financial Crimes Division.

"I know there's disappointment and pain. Though damaged, there's still a level of trust in our city, and I'm grateful for that," adds Chief Finner, who says HPD needs an additional 2,000 officers. He says the city has grown by a half million people and personnel within the department has decreased by hundreds. Chief Finner admits some areas are left uncovered due to the shortage.

"It's like Swiss cheese right now. There are holes everywhere," says the Chief.

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Using overtime, more than 100 officers from Code Enforcement and Community Affairs, as well as investigators and supervisors, there have now been more than 3,000 of these cases reviewed so far and they're contacting the victims. So, some staff members who typically don't do this are now assigned to get this done.   

Chief Finner says after finding out in 2021 that this 'short staffing' code was being used, he gave an order for it to stop. Two high-ranking members of HPD have now been demoted because the use of the code continued.

There's an Internal Affairs investigation and just a day before this news conference Mayor John Whitmire announced he has ordered a third-party independent review.

"We're going to fix this problem, and we're going to be a better department moving forward," says Chief Finner.

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So were most of these suspended cases from a particular area of town? "No analysis on that yet. However, I don't think it's location specific," the Chief answers, but he says that's part of the investigation, and it is too late for some cases because of the statute of limitations?

The Chief says he believes the statute of limitations for sexual assault is ten years, and he says many of the incidents with the 'Suspended due to Lack of Manpower' code include things like car break-ins where there's no evidence or video and some reports that are filed for insurance or civil matters.

If your case is one of the thousands improperly coded and your contact information has changed, HPD wants to hear from you. You're asked to call (713) 308-1180 or email specialvictimsreport@houstonpolice.org.