The Houston Police Department doesn’t use a consistent, agency-wide system for managing and classifying criminal cases, a shortcoming that increases the likelihood of cases getting lost in the system, according to a preliminary report issued by an independent review panel Wednesday.
The panel, commissioned by Mayor John Whitmire to scrutinize the department’s handling of 264,000 incidents over the past several years, found Houston police haven’t invested enough in an efficient, automated system to manage cases. As a result, the status of many cases have been improperly labeled, said Christina Nowak, a member of the Houston Police Department Independent Review Committee.
The committee authors also found shortcomings with protocols in the Special Victims division, which investigates sex crimes. For example, the authors noted that crime victims were expected to schedule a forensic interview with police only during business hours during the work week.
The findings are among the first to emerge from the panel following the disclosure in January that Houston police labeled hundreds of thousands of cases as “suspended – lack of personnel.” HPD officials have said the vast majority of those cases were properly investigated, ran out of leads or were misclassified as suspended, though dozens of cases have subsequently resulted in arrests of suspects.
Former Police Chief Troy Finner, who resigned last week amid fresh scrutiny of when he first learned of the code, ordered a review of the incidents in February, triggering an internal investigation. HPD spokesman Victor Senties said Wednesday that the agency has received a copy of the report and looks forward to reviewing it.
The report didn’t explore whether police had failed to investigate known leads and arrest suspects in suspended cases. It did, however, contain more than a dozen recommendations both for the department as a whole and for the Special Victims division.
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Learn more Nowak said the committee will continue its review of the suspended cases, with the focus now turning to assault and family violence reports.
“Our work is not done, but we are prioritizing victim-centered crimes with a shared goal of improving the Houston Police Department and ensuring the community this will not happen again,” Nowak said.
In addition to serving on the committee, Nowak is the deputy inspector general of the city’s Office of Policing Reform and Accountability, which investigates misconduct complaints and reviews HPD policies.
‘Requires substantial resources’
The report, based on a review of 10 percent of the 9,167 cases within the Special Victims division assigned the internal code “suspended – lack of personnel” since 2016, recommends the department develop written policies for how suspended reports will be periodically reviewed.
The authors also recommended HPD set up a system of checks and balances to prevent suspended or inactive reports from being lost in the shuffle. (HPD officials initially said they were reviewing 4,017 adult sexual assault cases labeled with the internal code.)
“The identified criticisms largely stem from the overwhelming volume of incident reports and limited time and resources available for resolution,” the report reads. “Addressing these concerns requires substantial resources, technology, personnel, and infrastructure investment. However, the crux lies in consistently managing operational issues across the board, ensuring that the objectives outlined in this assessment are implemented administratively and unilaterally.”
Due to lapses in technology, the process by which a report is filed and ultimately assigned to an investigator “can very easily become inundated and complicated in ways that have directly contributed to the problems that we see today,” Nowak told Houston City Council on Wednesday.
For the agency’s Special Victims division, the authors’ recommendations included:
- A mandatory 55-hour training program administered by the Houston Area Women’s Center.
- Improved coordination and collaboration with outside agencies, especially when survivors cannot be immediately located.
- Survivor and trauma-centered training for patrol officers.
- Scheduling forensic interviews at times most convenient for survivors.
The Houston Area Women’s Center did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Whitmire, who took office in January, said the report’s recommendations highlight the need for deeper investment in public safety. Council members are largely in lock step with the mayor on the matter.
“Everything you recommend is going to require additional staffing, which highlights how we got into this mess in the first place,” he said. “You pay now or you pay later.”
An old code
A portion of the preliminary report also delves into when and how the “suspended – lack of personnel” code was created and its use over the years. According to the report, the code was introduced in March 2016 and approved by former acting chief Martha Montalvo.
A presentation on the code from that year defined it as “all primary and secondary cases that have workable leads but cannot be assigned due to manpower limitations. These cases could be assigned for investigation or non-investigative follow up at a later time.”
Finner, who served as Houston’s police chief for three years after the abrupt departure of Art Acevedo in March 2021, resigned last week after local media obtained an email that suggested he may have been aware of that code as early as 2018.
Finner had previously said he learned of the code in November 2021 and did not recall the earlier email. Still, the revelation of the 2018 email threatened to further entangle Finner in an internal affairs investigation that has since been reopened.
Whitmire has said Finner’s decision to retire ultimately was the chief’s, but it was made in “dialogue” with the mayor.
Several council members have since come to Finner’s defense. District F Councilmember Tiffany Thomas said Wednesday that the preliminary report’s findings support her suspicion that information was withheld from Finner.
“I am affirmed in my instinct that he was not given the opportunity to lead the department with all the information that has been provided today,” Thomas said.
When asked by Councilmember Edward Pollard whether the committee had determined when Finner first learned of the code, the panel’s chair, Ellen Cohen, said that question fell outside its purview.
“The committee itself is not involved in what you’re asking now,” said Cohen, a retired former state representative and Houston city council member who also led Houston Area Women’s Center for nearly two decades. “We’re involved in reviewing the reviewers and understanding the cases themselves. So in terms of the issues surrounding Chief Finner, the committee, the five of us, really can’t comment.”
Staff writer Paul Cobler contributed to this report.
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