HOUSTON — After vowing to leave no victims behind, Houston Police Chief Troy Finner outlined the department's next steps following the revelation that thousands of incident reports were suspended "due to lack of personnel."
Finner said his first priority is the 4,000+ reported sexual assault crimes that were put on the back burner.
On Thursday, the chief assembled a large team of officers to try and locate those victims who were left in limbo. He said more than 100 special assignment officers will visit the last known addresses of the people who filed reports.
Another 32 investigators and supervisors are reaching out via phone or email and advocates in HPD's Victim Services Division will provide "trauma-informed support to survivors," according to Finner.
At a news conference on Wednesday, several survivors shared their stories in hopes of sparking conversations that could lead to a change in how reports and responses are handled.
"I think it's important that we recognize that every survivor here had some sort of bumps on the road, and that can be sometimes discouraging to survivors that, you know, they might feel hopeless, sad, isolated from this experience," survivor Ana Polanco said. "This is not an unusual situation. It happens very often, unfortunately, and things need to change."
The Houston Area Women's Center said Finner has assured them that HPD will do whatever is necessary to right the wrongs.
"We intend to leverage the attention currently on HPD and direct it towards real solutions because this is so much bigger than HPD," HAWC President and CEO Emilee Whitehurst said.
Other city leaders apologized to the victims and called for a transparent investigation to find out what happened, along with accountability.
"That is not acceptable and our city owes you better," Edward Pollard, City Council District J, said at a news conference with the Houston Area Women's Center.
Finner said every HPD department used the "due to lack of personnel" code since 2016, resulting in thousands of cases being placed on the back burner. He said the number of incident reports that had been suspended with the code was about 264,000.
Finner told us he'll hold a news conference to disclose more information later this week.
If you were a victim of a crime and believe your case didn't get enough attention, you can contact the Houston Police Department at 713-884-3131.