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Houston leaders react to police chief's announcement
Houston Police Chief Troy Finner announced he was assigning 100 officers to track down crime victims whose cases were suspended due to lack of man power. FOX 26's Greg Groogan has city leader's latest reaction.
HOUSTON - Houston Police Chief Troy Finner announced Thursday that he’s assigned 100 additional officers to track down sex crime victims whose cases were suspended over the past eight years due to lack of manpower.
As Houstonians wait for Police Chief Troy Finner to explain in detail why a quarter million criminal cases were never investigated, FOX 26 reached out to victim advocates for their take on what appears to many as a gross dereliction of duty.
CONTINUING COVERAGE: Rape survivors, advocates demand reform after HPD sexual assault case suspensions
"If we don’t have trust in our law enforcement, and we don't have trust in our criminal justice system, then people have lost faith. If you don't have trust in law enforcement, you lose law and order, and that one reason why you are seeing people take the law into their own hands these days, because they've lost the trust and faith in our system. This certainly dims and puts a real big mar on that," said Andy Kahn with Houston Crimestoppers.
FOX 26 also spoke with City Council Member Julian Ramirez, a former prosecutor who ran for office on a commitment to improve public safety.
"The police department painted a rosy picture last year of our crime rate and our clearance rates, and so I want to know - How does this revelation affect the crime rate that they had reported and the clearance rate that they had reported? I think there is strong suspicion on the part of a lot of people that we've been misled. We don't appreciate that," said Ramirez.
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No word yet when Chief Finner will update the community on the scope of the 264,000 cases that his department failed to investigate.