HOUSTON – Houston Police Department Chief Troy Finner is giving props to his homicide division after seeing the homicide rate decrease over the last few weeks.
“Let me give some credit to the troops on the frontlines, they deserve it,” said Finner.
Finner’s comment comes as the city of Houston’s homicide rate remains 31% higher than last year’s rate. But according to tracking from KPRC 2 Investigates, there has been a 12% decrease in homicides since a high of 43% was reported on June 24.
“I hope that those numbers, and I pray that those numbers, continue to trend down,” Finner said.
Mothers who have lost children to the violence in Houston tell KPRC 2 Investigates communication, along with detectives who understand the community, are two key traits they would like to see more of from HPD.
“When you are looking at solving violent crimes and especially homicides, you have to have individuals from all groups,” said Finner.
KPRC 2 Investigates asked HPD to provide its ethnicity breakdown of its homicide investigators out of 102 investigators. HPD said 72 of its investigators are white, 20 are Hispanic and six are Black.
Unfortunately, the department’s numbers don’t reflect the make-up of the city they are protecting or the homicides they are solving. Families say someone with a similar background may allow for greater trust, which they believe will result in even more homicide cases being cleared.
“I do not want to discount the great work that other investigators have been doing, but we are the most diverse city in the nation, our departments and our divisions need to reflect that and we need to do everything we can to get those numbers up, and we will,” said Finner.
Chief Finner also attributes a number of recently solved cases to the increase in the number of tips his department has received.
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