Photo: Alex Bierens de Haan / Getty Images News / Getty Images
On Thursday, HPD Chief Troy Finner said more than 4,000 sexual assault cases have been ‘cleared’ or ‘suspended’ since 2016 because of a lack of personnel. The problems may be worse than that.
Houston Police Officers Union President Doug Griffith tells out TV partner Channel Two that PD’s rank and file is telling HPOU the practice of suspending criminal investigations and blaming it on lack of manpower is happening in other departments within HPD.
“Well I have had people tell me, other divisions are also using that code,” said Griffith.
Griffith is asking the same questions that many are asking after Thursday's bombshell announcement, and after Finner admitted knowing that this was happening as far back as November of 2021.
“If you knew about it in 2021, why did we not take action then? Why did we not investigate the cases going back to 2016 then? And why did we not follow-up to make sure that code wasn’t being used again later?,” said Griffith.