HOUSTON – The City of Houston will now create an independent review to look over more than 264,000 cases and how they were handled by Chief Troy Finner and his staff.
In an interview with KPRC 2 Investigate Mario Diaz, Mayor John Whitmire says there will be a panel of individuals but did not provide specifics on who these folks will be.
The bottom line is that Whitmire wants the police chief’s work reviewed.
This comes nearly three weeks after Chief Finner revealed a significant number of sex assault cases got suspended in the records-keeping system.
Among those are 4,000 sexual assault cases.
The chief told KPRC 2 that multiple divisions used the suspended code, adding up to 10% of all of the department’s cases during the last eight years.
The five criminal divisions being investigated included special victims, gangs, family violence, auto thefts, and vehicular crimes.
Chief Finner told the public he would hold a press conference last week. He has yet to do so.
Finner released the following statement in response to the mayor’s decision to hire a third party to review his department:
I welcome and support Mayor Whitmire’s decision to establish an independent third party to review the Houston Police Department’s handling of the 264,000 incident reports “suspended -- lack of personnel.”
The Mayor and I have spoken almost daily about this matter and I appreciate his continued support of HPD and my administration.
Today’s announcement by the Mayor is a vital part of the transparency and accountability I have been promising since announcing this review process on February 16.
I will have a news conference at 11:30 a.m. tomorrow (Thursday) to provide an update on our internal review process, our efforts to contact victims and what comes next.
