houston police department

Code still in Houston police handbook despite Chief Finner asking for its removal 2 years ago

Thursday, February 29, 2024

HPD code ordered removed by Chief Finner is still in police handbook

The Houston Police Department's handbook still holds guidance regarding "lack of personnel" coding that leads to case suspensions.

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Despite Chief Troy Finner saying he ordered the Houston Police Department's "lack of personnel" code to stop being used in November 2021, screenshots of the current handbook, which was last updated and approved Dec. 1, 2023, show it's still an option for investigators today.

"Sexual assault, major assaults, and family violence and robberies - those are things that we should never clear like that," Houston Police Officers' Union President Doug Griffith said.

The handbook shows that the SL, or "Suspend for Lack of Personnel," code is applied when there is insufficient staffing to investigate a case.

The handbook says the suspended cases should be reviewed periodically to determine if they should be reassigned to investigators.

It also states misdemeanor cases other than family violence can be reassigned but only if a victim reaches out to press charges.

"We know we have an emphasis here on domestic violence in the city of Houston. Our officers have been doing overtime to investigate a lot of these cases, so to find that some could have or were, by their standard operating procedure, coded that, can be a problem," Griffith said.

Griffith added that administrative officers and sergeants often review and update the handbook. It then goes to the assistant chief, who signs off on the updates.

Finner said he ordered the SL code to stop being used in November 2021, but over two years later, it never was.

"This could have just been a cut-and-paste job - put in there and tweak what you want to tweak and left those codes in there," Griffith said.

Griffith said it's an oversight that's unacceptable.

"My heart goes out to the victims. It really does. I get in here and yell and scream about the courts not doing their job, and then I find out we have our own cases that were cleared this way," Griffith said.

Finner previously said victims in forgotten cases will be contacted. Council members have also called for all cases to be reinvestigated.

"Every single case needs to be reinvestigated. It's disrespectful to our patrol officers who are doing the work on the front end. It's disrespectful to all Houstonians and especially to the victims here," Amy Peck, Houston District A council member, said.

Griffith said he doesn't see how realistically all 264,000 cases can reopened.

"Do I believe we'll be able to go back and look at every single case? I'll be honest with you, I don't think that's possible," Griffith said.

Other council members also voiced their disappointment such a drastic oversight was made.

"I am flabbergasted at why anyone would have thought it would be a good idea to create such a code," Houston At-Large Position 1 Councilman Julian Ramirez said.

"I understand that HPD is spread thin, and they work extremely hard to keep our city safe. But based on this issue, we have to take the necessary steps to repair the trust that has been lost with our community," Houston District J Councilman Edward Pollard said.

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