Police Chief Troy Finner has announced the completion of an Internal Affairs investigation into the "lack of personnel" code that led to the suspension of over 260,000 department-wide incident reports since 2016. The file is now under review by the Independent Police Oversight Board (IPOB) and the Administration Disciplinary Committee (ADC), with a news conference promised within the next two weeks to update the community, according to a statement on the city's website.
As the review of these incident reports progresses, investigators are working through approximately 10,000 reports per week. To date, 107,094 incident reports have been reviewed, and nearly half of them have been deemed appropriate for closure or suspension, indicating a lack of actionable leads, Chief Finner said.
Furthermore, Chief Finner shared that all of the 4,017 adult sex crime incident reports have undergone review, with the majority, 3,501 reports, also fitting the criteria for being closed, cleared, inactivated or suspended. The Houston Police Department has taken a proactive approach in the matter, conducting 1,765 location checks at the last known addresses of complainants and scheduling forensic interviews with 427 survivors.
The police department's rigorous efforts have also yielded CODIS DNA profile matches in 94 reports, leading to ongoing investigations. Of those matches, 14 are tied to suspects already behind bars for other crimes, with the department working closely on these follow-up investigations. Despite these matches, Chief Finner notes that a CODIS hit is "evidence, but not necessarily proof an individual committed a crime." Through this extensive review, charges have been levied against 45 suspects, of which most are misdemeanors (33), with the rest being felonies (21) related to aggravated assault.
Chief Finner remains committed to reviewing all 264,000 reports and stresses the department's dedication to crimes against persons and providing trauma-informed services. In his statement, he assured the public and survivors of sexual assault and family violence that their cases are a priority. The department also continues to cooperate with the Independent Review Committee established by Mayor John Whitmire to oversee the review process.
Further updates from the Houston Police Department are anticipated as the community awaits the measures that will ensure accountability and transparency moving forward.
