HPD will have to regain the public’s trust
If you believe Houston Police Chief Troy Finner, it took him five months to learn that some of his officers had, for years, incorrectly classified certain sexual assault incident reports as “suspended” due to a “lack of personnel.” Finner said upon making this discovery, he dealt with the issue internally and ordered officers in the special victims division to stop using this code.
That was in November 2021. Last week, Finner held a press conference announcing that HPD would be reviewing more than 4,000 sexual assault cases dating back to 2016 that were suspended using the same internal code he supposedly put an end to. Finner said he found out the faulty code was still being used on Feb. 7, begging the question of why it took him nearly three years to ferret out these misclassified incident reports and finally conduct a thorough review when he already knew it was a problem? It also doesn’t explain why, according to documents obtained by the Chronicle, as recently as December, the department’s official policies allowed officers in the major assault unit to use this code for certain felony and misdemeanor cases. Finner said the code would “not be used again in my administration.”
The apparent discrepancy between Finner’s words and actions fly in the face of his characterization that this is merely an isolated “administrative” issue. The more we learn about how widespread these mishandled incident reports were, it looks a lot more like managerial incompetence or outright corruption.
On Monday, for instance, Finner revealed that the number of cases suspended using this code extend well beyond the relatively small number of sexual assault cases. In a statement, he said that as many as 264,000 incident reports since 2016 — about 10% of the total incident reports filed during that time period — were classified as “suspended — lack of personnel,” including roughly 100,000 property crimes.
Obviously, these misclassified incident reports raise serious questions about the accuracy of HPD’s crime statistics over the past eight years. While “suspended” cases don’t always equate to a dismissal, it could be reflected as a dismissal in the crime data. Finner himself acknowledged last week that the suspended sexual assault cases “absolutely” impact the department’s figures.
“You won’t hear me saying anything about a clearance rate right now until we get a handle on this,” Finner said.
The suspended cases appear to be a result of either inexcusably lazy police work by HPD officers investigating these crimes, or worse, a coordinated effort to obfuscate incident reports to improve the department’s crime statistics. Either way, the continued practice of misclassifying incident reports for at least the past eight years reflects a startling lack of oversight. Like many law enforcement agencies, HPD has had staffing challenges, with 342 fewer officers than it had 25 years ago. Yet, a sexual assault victim shouldn’t have to worry about staffing issues when she puts her trust in police to hold the perpetrator accountable and ensure they don’t hurt anyone else. If crime victims don’t have faith that HPD will even pursue their case then a social contract has been broken.
For now, Finner and his team of 32 investigators are attempting to regain the public’s trust with their probe. Whether that’s possible is yet to be determined. We believe the scale of this administrative failure is vast enough to warrant an independent investigation from an outside agency, whether it’s the DA’s office or the Department of Justice.
Finner, who replaced Chief Art Acevedo when he took a job in Miami, seemed up to the task and respected by rank and file. He’s been responsive, quickly reforming the department’s policy on car chases, for example, after a Chronicle investigation revealed dangerous practices. Whitmire seemed poised to keep Finner on, even though new mayors often appoint their own chiefs. We wouldn’t be surprised if he was reassessing.
Much depends on what Finner’s internal review finds. He says it could take six months. It should be released publicly and make it clear how many cases were suspended with this code; how many incident reports were credible enough to be pursued further; and who is responsible for the practice continuing. Whether this was a rogue group of officers lazily writing off cases or a larger systemic problem condoned by supervisors, responsible individuals should be held accountable.
The internal review should also detail how HPD plans to regain the trust of the alleged victims who reported these incidents, some of whom may have been waiting years for a resolution only to recently discover their complaint was mothballed. During his press conference, Finner said his team of investigators has begun to reach out to victims to follow up on each case and “give them the respect they need.” That’s a start, but it should’ve been done three years ago when he first found out that sexual assault cases were being incorrectly suspended. Finner cannot simply point to his 2021 discovery as proof that he took it seriously and then hide behind an ongoing internal affairs investigation to not answer any further questions about it. Especially when the investigation has been dragging on for three years. The public deserves to know exactly what he knew and when, and what he did to stop it before it was supposedly brought to his attention again this month.
Finner concluded his press conference by calling it a “dark day” for the department, and promised to continue to inform the public on the results of their investigation.
“I’m angry because I know we’re better,” Finner said. “We will make it right.”
A transparent accounting of how the department got into this mess is only a start.
Wrongly suspending thousands of cases is beyond embarrassing