Two high-ranking officials in the Houston Police Department have been busted down the ranks after a whopping 264,000 incident cases were labelled as suspended. Assistant Chiefs Ernest Garcia and Kevin Deese found themselves demoted following a discovery that a "lack of personnel" code was improperly used department-wide since 2016. This internal audit, as Houston Police Chief Troy Finner mentioned, resulted from an initial focus on over 4,000 mishandled sexual assault cases, the Houston Chronicle reported.
Though the details of their involvement remain murky, the demotions of Deese and Garcia underscore the magnitude of the scandal that has rocked the HPD. According to the Houston Police Officers' Union, it remains unclear what roles the assistant chiefs played in the debacle, and what their new positions entail. Essential questions linger after thousands of serious incidents, including property crimes and sexual assaults, were placed in limbo.
Chief Finner, in a news release quoted by the Houston Chronicle, stated, “Sexual assaults are some of the most traumatic crimes for victims and their families.” He emphasized that, no matter the staffing challenges, “this should have never happened and will not continue.” Finner added that all victims and their families "are important to me and deserve to be treated as such."
In an official statement posted on social media mid-February, Finner labeled the issue as unacceptable and vowed for transparency and resolution. The gravity of the situation was further revealed when it was disclosed that every department used the controversial code since 2016, suspending roughly 10% of all incident reports. "We determined that department-wide approximately 264,000 such incident reports since 2016 were suspended with this code," Finner said, as reported by KHOU. Of these incidents, about 100,000 are property crimes, a staggering figure for any metropolis.
The depth of this administrative mishandling has brought upon the HPD a cloud of skepticism, as public trust hangs in the balance. Attempts to contact the demoted assistant chiefs proved largely fruitless – Deese declined to comment, and Garcia could not be reached, according to the Houston Chronicle. As the investigation into the suspended cases continues, Houstonians are left to grapple with the stark reality that tens of thousands of criminal complaints may have been effectively ignored due to systematic failures within their police force.
