In June 2014, a report presented to Houston City Council and covered by Eyewitness News found that 20,000 crimes, some with workable leads, went uninvestigated the year before because of inadequate staffing. The number included 15,000 burglaries and thefts, 3,000 assaults, and nearly 3,000 hit-and-runs.
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Dr. Larry Hoover, a criminal justice expert, told council members at the time, "That is a situation which cries for attention."
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Michael Kubosh, a former council member, expressed his shock.
"Good God, almighty. I hope the criminals don't know about this!" Kubosh said.
"Nothing is being done because we don't have the personnel to give attention to those cases. That's unacceptable and unconscionable," C.O. Bradford, a former police chief who was also on the council at the time, said stunned.
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The recommendation was to hire more staff, both patrol officers and 100 more detectives. At a budget workshop later that week, then-Chief Charles McClelland addressed the issue.
"This is not unique to the Houston Police Department. Other police departments give it a sexy name called 'early cases closure,'" he said. "A hundred more detectives will not give the capacity to work 20,000 cases."
In the decade since, HPD has had two more chiefs.
Chief Troy Finner is now under fire and facing calls for a recusal from the investigation. There are questions about who knew what, when, and how long cases have gone uninvestigated.
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On Wednesday, Mayor John Whitmire pointed out McClelland's 2014 remarks.
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"I saw a tape where McClelland was before council in 2014 and discussed it. Y'all need to report that," he said.
Whitmire has created a five-person review committee, which publicly met for the first time Wednesday. Meantime, HPD's internal investigation continues.
The department is still grappling with a decade-old problem.
"I'm very confident it's being handled properly," Whitmire said.
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