Houston Suspends 260K Criminal Cases Over Lack of Personnel

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(NewsWorthy.news) – More than 260,000 open criminal cases have been delayed over the past eight years due to limited personnel, according to a recent review of the Houston Police Department (HPD).

Troy Finner, the police department’s chief, announced on February 26 that the law enforcement agency’s “lack of personnel” code had been cited to suspend roughly 264,000 criminal cases since 2016. This results in about 10% of the nearly three million reports that have been filed during that time.

The department-wide review came after a recent announcement that around 4,000 assault accusations were suspended due to the code, leading to a larger investigation of how the “lack of personnel” policy is used across each division in the agency.

Following this initial suspension of cases, Finner shared that he was opposed to the code existing at all. However, it was initiated a decade earlier and was designed to assist in labeling non-priority cases as “suspended” because of a “lack of personnel” to take the cases.

Finner has said that he learned about the code in 2021 and told his agency to stop using it as a means to set aside legitimate complaints. His order was clearly not followed as the number of “lack of personnel” suspended cases remains high. The police chief has since launched an investigation to determine why officers and agency officials had disobeyed his order.

Finner told the public that he is “angry” instead of “proud” about the situation, stating that he “know[s] we are better.” He acknowledged that the HPD is short staffed, potentially up to 2,000 few officers, but added that they agency is not doing its best when assault cases are being disregarded.

Finner promised that the department will “make it right.”

A statement from the law enforcement agency also details what cases were suspended due to the “lack of personnel” code. Roughly 100,000 of the 264,000 cases put on the back burner are related to crimes against property. However, the HPD has specified that its top priority on the suspended cases will be to review reports of assault.