HOUSTON — Houston Police Department Chief Troy Finner gave some concerning numbers Thursday on the number of cases suspended due to the department's "lack of personnel" code, which means there were not enough personnel to investigate the case and nothing else was done.
Finner said among the 264,000 suspended cases since 2016, sexual assault cases accounted for 4,017 of them. There were 109,000 major assaults tagged with the code along with several homicide cases, Finner said.
According to data retrieved by the KHOU 11 Investigates team, thousands of these incidents were suspended with the "lack of personnel" code the same day they were reported.
HPD assigned 32 investigators who were placed under supervision to contact victims in the suspended cases. As of Thursday, 132 interviews with victims were scheduled and nearly 700 visits to victim's homes were made.
Chief Finner admitted to not having the staff to investigate every suspended case but said violent crimes against people will be the department's top priority. Finner said the statute of limitations may impact some of these violent crime cases, but the statute of limitations won't apply to the suspended sex crime cases.
"One concern of mine as we go through the incident reports, has the statute of limitations expired? How many?" Finner said. "We don't know until the review is completed. We do know, however, that adult sexual assault incidents dating back to 2016 will not be affected because the statute of limitations is at least 10 years for sexual assaults."
The chief said he first learned about the "lack of personnel" code in 2021, the year he became the HPD chief. He said he issued a verbal directive to his senior leadership ordering that the code should no longer be used. He said that the directive was not followed.
According to Finner, the code was used in two previous HPD administrations and was created in 2016.
Finner was asked if his predecessor, former Chief Art Acevedo knew about the code.
“I don’t want to speak for him," Finner said. "But it’s a possibility that he’s just like I was, but I don’t want to speak for Chief Acevedo or any other chief.”
Chief Acevedo released a statement to KHOU 11 Thursday evening that read:
"I’ve been asked to comment on the use of the case management code, “SL, suspended - lack of personnel” by investigative units at the Houston Police Department to suspend or close criminal investigations. To be clear, the use of this code was not authorized by me nor was I apprised of its use.
While acknowledging the longstanding issue of understaffing within HPD, along with the challenges posed by outdated record management and analytical technology, it was my expectation that comprehensive investigations be conducted and completed whenever evidence and leads were present."
As for the other police chiefs since 2016, Charles McClelland, who was chief from 2010 through early 2016, said he had no comment. Martha Montalvo, who served from Feb. 2016 through Nov. of 2016, couldn't be reached.
These numbers released by Finner came just one day after Houston Mayor John Whitmire announced his intent to create an independent review panel to look into HPD's actions.
"I trust and believe police chief Troy Finner is doing the best he can to manage the internal investigation, get to the bottom of it, and hold people accountable," Whitmire said Wednesday. "The independent panel will be people I also trust to review and validate the outcome and help bring closure to the victims."
Finner said he welcomes the independent review as it will lend credibility to the department. He also said HPD's internal review of the 264,000 suspended incident reports will likely take months.
Watch the full briefing below: