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Houston Mayor Whitmire has 'full confidence in the chief' after 260K cases found to be suspended

Friday, March 1, 2024

Houston mayor discusses thousands of HPD sex assault cases ignored

Houston Mayor John Whitmire says he has confidence in HPD Chief Troy Finner after the department announced thousands of cases went ignored.

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- The Houston Police Department's chief still has a lot of explaining to do after revealing more than a quarter of a million cases filed by crime victims since 2016 who trusted investigators to get them justice were suspended because of inadequate staffing.

According to HPD Chief Troy Finner, 4,000 of those cases were sexual assault reports.

Finner said he would hold a news conference this week but still has not. He released a statement on Thursday afternoon stating, "Our priority remains reaching out and personally contacting those who filed an adult sex crime incident reports."

Finner went on to say that HPD has assigned 100 officers to visit the last known addresses of those who filed reports and assigned 32 investigators who are reaching out by phone or email.

ABC13 Reporter Brooke Taylor sat down with Houston Mayor John Whitmire to discuss why Houstonians should trust a police department that ignored thousands of reports.

"What happened is in previous administrations, city hall, and the police department, they were not being transparent about numbers," Whitmire said. "You can say cases are going down if you are not investigating them."

Whitmire says he had no plans of firing the chief and has full confidence in Finner.

"This is the same chief that a month ago our community was praising for being a leader," Whitmire said. "He is still a leader, but he can be better. He is a good chief. I have said it since I was sworn in office."

According to Whitmire, in 2016, the assistant chief came up with a "Suspend for Lack of Personnel," outlined in the current handback, which can be applied when there is insufficient staffing to investigate a case.

"Why in the world didn't the department's previous chiefs and previous mayor go public and say, 'If we are going to have a safe Houston, we need resources?' I am prepared to do that," Whitmire asked.

According to Finner, he ordered HPD to stop using this code in 2021, although he never publicly acknowledged this until years later.

"That is all being investigated, but when he discovered it in December or October 2021, he instructed in a staff meeting to eliminate that code, research and find out the origin of it and who is using it, and put it to an end."

When asked why Finner never followed up to see whether his department was still using the code, Whitmire said he instructed his senior command staff and is still trying to figure out what happened.

See Finner's full statement:

"Our review of all incident reports suspended with the code "lack of personnel" continues. On Monday, I said I planned to have a news briefing this week. Right now, our priority remains reaching out and personally contacting those who filed an adult sex crime incident report. This morning, we assembled more than 100 special assignment officers to visit the last known addresses of those who filed reports. The officers join the recently assigned 32 investigators and supervisors who are reaching out via phone or email. Advocates in our Victim Services Division are also assisting in providing trauma-informed support to survivors. As promised, we will do everything we can to reach every person who filed an adult sex crime incident report."

For updates on this story, follow Brooke Taylor on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.