Around 264,000 criminal cases, including more than 4,000 sex assault cases, have been suspended by the Houston Police Department (HPD) since 2016, citing a “lack of personnel” code, according to Houston Police Chief Troy Finner.
Finner announced on Monday that an in-depth review of the department’s use of the “lack of personnel” code over the past eight years revealed it had suspended around 10% of the 2.8 million incident reports that were filed, the Houston Chronicle reported. The Houston Police Department first revealed last week that just over 4,000 cases of alleged sexual assault had been suspended over “lack of personnel,” which sparked a closer look at how the code was used throughout all divisions of the police department.
The police chief voiced his frustration at his department suspending sex assault cases last week, saying that the code should have never existed, but was developed around ten years ago to label reports “suspended due to a lack of personnel.” Finner said he first became aware of the code being used in 2021, and he ordered his department to stop using it to suspend cases. Finner added that an investigation is underway to look into why his order was disobeyed.
“Am I proud about this? No, I’m angry, okay, because I know we are better, and we are going to make it right, and we will make it right,” Finner said, according to Fox 26 Houston. “We are still short of staff and some people say 2,000 officers, so we do the best that we can do, but that’s not good enough when we are not investigating sexual assaults.”