Houston Police Chief: 10% of incident reports for 2016 were suspended due to the ‘lack of personnel’ code.
Chief Troy Finner, Houston Police Department announced Monday that more than 266,000 criminal cases were suspended by the Houston Police Department in the past eight years due to the “lack of personnel” code.
Finner initially revealed last week that “lack of personnel” had suspended administratively 4,017 alleged cases of sexual assault. The department, however, found out that the code applied to all divisions in the department after a closer examination.
Finner said that 264,000 incident reports have been suspended since 2016 due to a “lack of personnel”. The Houston Police Department has filed 2.8 million incident reports in the past eight years. This represents 10% of that total.
The Chief stated that of the 264,000 crimes reported, approximately 100,000 were property crimes.
Chief Troy Finner of the Houston Police Department said that on Monday, the number of cases suspended due to a code for ‘lack personnel’ has increased from 264,000 to over 274,000 across the entire department.
Finner said that police are increasing their efforts to investigate reports of sexual assaults and contact potential victims. The police are moving more staff to other divisions to investigate any crimes against others.
Finner said last week that he only became aware in 2021 of the fact lack of staffing led to some sexual assault cases being suspended. Finner then ordered the department to stop using the code. He stated that it seemed the code was still being used throughout the department, despite his orders.
Chief Troy Finner of the Houston Police Department stated that his department is reviewing all cases involving sexual abuse, and working to find potential victims.
“Am I proud about this?” “Am I proud of this?” No. I am angry. “We will fix it,” Finner told reporters last week that he would fix it.
After Monday’s disclosure, Houston Mayor John Whitmire expressed his concern about the backlog in cases being investigated by the Department.
“I am very concerned. The Mayor stated that this was unacceptable. He had told Chief Finner to make transparency his number one priority. ”
Finner has announced that he will hold a media briefing this week.
