Email appears to indicate Houston Police Chief Troy Finner knew of suspended cases in 2018

HOUSTON – Houston police have admitted to 264,000 incident reports being suspended due to the lack of personnel, including more than 4,000 sexual assault reports. Those reports date back to 2016.

When the news broke about “adult sex crimes investigations” being suspended in February, Chief Troy Finner told KPRC 2 Investigates he first learned of the code being used over two years earlier and mandated that it stop being used.

“November of 2021 was the first time I have ever heard of a case management code system labeled as Suspended Lack of Personnel,” Finner told KPRC 2 Investigates.

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Now, an internal document KPRC 2 Investigates obtained shows Chief Finner was looped in about the code being used by HPD in cases as far back as 2018.

“It’s something that I didn’t know about and I definitely didn’t remember that,” Finner told KPRC 2 Investigates Mario Diaz when he showed the chief the email at a luncheon today.

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In the email dated July 20, 2018, Finner states “this is unacceptable, look into it and follow up with me.”

That was his response to the email sent by George Mixon, the former Chief of Staff to Art Acevedo, to the executive staff, which included Acevado, Finner, and Commander Kevin Deese.

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In the email, Mixon states there was a road rage incident on April 8th, where officers had a “Full Plate and Able to ID Suspect,” but on May 24th, the “SL” code was attached to the case by a senior officer. Mixon added that a witness could identify the suspect.

Within 3.5 hours, Finner wanted Deese to look into the case and “follow up” with him instead of calling for an investigation.

Deese was demoted back to Commander in March during the investigation into the suspended cases after having climbed the ranks to Assistant Chief since the 2018 email.

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“I have said how sophisticated Houston is, so to try and tie that to, you know, like I’m being untruthful, it’s not going to work,” Finner said. “Why would I as Executive Assistant Chief over patrol, I don’t know anything about the coding process then, so that term means nothing to me at the time.”

Finner maintains he didn’t know about the “SL” code until 2021 and that he ordered the practice of using it to stop.

KPRC 2 Investigates Mario Diaz took the documented 2018 email to Chief Finner while at a luncheon. Finner told him multiple times, “The email is out of context.”

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“Now if I go back and look at all your emails over a 10-year period or whatever the period is do you think that you will leave something out? Do you think that you will leave something out? Do you think that there is an intent? There is untruthfulness and there is intent. Did anybody try to perceive or misrepresent anything? No.”

Late Tuesday afternoon, the chief posted a lengthy statement on social media about the 2018 email:

Finner added all of the information involving this case will come out in the completed investigation.