The Houston Police Department (HPD) is embroiled in a scandal over a staggering number of 'suspended' cases, with six officers now under the microscope of internal affairs. KPRC 2 Investigates reported that amid this investigation, five commanders and one lieutenant have been reviewed regarding 4,000 sexual assault investigations that were dropped without a proper probe.
While these findings continue to stir unrest, HPD Chief Troy Finner has made the decision to promote two commanders to assistant chiefs. The promoted officers, Alvaro Guzman and Adrian Rodriguez, are expected to lift departmental morale, which Mayor John Whitmire described as the worst in fifty years in a statement obtained by KPRC 2. Chief Finner, who admitted knowledge of the suspension of cases back in 2021, claimed he ordered the practice to cease, though it perpetuated under his watch. It remains to be confirmed whether Chief Finner himself is under investigation by the Internal Affairs Division (IAD).
In an expansive revelation, ABC13 Investigates discovered that this incident goes far deeper, with over 260,000 reports marked 'suspended' since 2016 due to so-called 'lack of personnel,' including incidents related to violent crimes. While victims were left in the dark, no proper action or follow-up was taken on these cases.
This disquieting trend was previously flagged a decade ago when city council members were alerted, triggering a study that identified severe staffing issues leading to thousands of neglected cases. The study emphasized the breadth of the issue, revealing approximately 15,000 burglary and theft cases, along with nearly 3,000 assault and hit-and-run cases, remained untouched in 2013 because of insufficient personnel, as Dr. Larry Hoover pointed out during a Public Safety Committee meeting in 2014.
The Houston Police Department's response to transparency inquiries has been to seek permission from the Texas Attorney General to keep certain documents under wraps. These documents include memos and draft materials related to the 'lack of personnel' code, which HPD contends to be part of 'an open investigation' or not intended for public release. On the ground, HPD has demoted two assistant chiefs, and Mayor Whitmire has appointed an 'independent' panel alongside the department's internal probe, yet the agency has withheld the names of individuals responsible for implementing the 'suspended - lack of personnel' status on incident reports.
