HPD Chief Finner knew about the suspended case code, emails show

HOUSTON – An internal Houston Police Department memo obtained by KHOU 11 Investigates shows Chief Troy Finner knew about a controversial clearance code more than three years earlier than he publicly claimed. The “Suspension-Staffing Shortage” code, which put about 264,000 cases on hold, has plunged the department into scandal and prompted Houston Mayor John Whitmire to form an independent oversight board to oversee an ongoing internal affairs investigation to check.

The July 20, 2018 email addressed a hit-and-run incident on April 8, 2018, in which a citizen complained that his case was not being investigated despite having useful leads. It was written by then-Chief of Staff George Mixon and sent to HPD command staff, including then-Chief Art Acevedo, Deputy Chief Sheryl Victorian, Vehicle Crimes Unit Commander Kevin Deese, and Troy Finner, who was the deputy chief at the time Management was.

“On May 24, 2018, the case was closed by senior officer Danh Nguyen with “Attitude – Shortage of Personnel”, although the report contains a full license plate number and description of the suspect, including a statement from the witness that he can identify the suspect,” wrote Chief of Staff Mixon.

RELATED: 45 suspects charged in HPD review of suspended incident reports due to ‘lack of staffing,’ says Finner

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Mixon sent the email just before 5 a.m. At around 8:30 a.m. that same day, Finner responded to everyone: “Kevin, this is unacceptable, take a look at this and contact me.”

The newly surfaced email contradicts what Finner has repeatedly said publicly since the scandal broke this year. At press conferences on February 22 and March 7, Finner said he first learned of the code’s use in November 2021. The chief repeated that claim on April 2 during a two-hour, off-camera call with media and community leaders.

When asked about the email on Tuesday, Finner said he didn’t remember the email.

“Do you expect anyone to remember everything in every email that comes in? This is completely, completely unreasonable,” he said. “Trying to associate that with me being disingenuous or something like that isn’t going to work.”

At the time, Finner was busy with patrols and knew little about the case management coding process, he said.

“This is what happens when people give out information and then you don’t understand the true context of the entire investigation,” he said.

The internal investigation into the beginnings of the code and when it was brought to Chief Finner’s attention is still in the review process.

KHOU 11 Investigates shared the email with the Houston Police Officers Union on Tuesday.

“So he has to answer for why he either doesn’t remember or, as he claims, he didn’t know about this code, even though we obviously have it in writing that he was informed about it in 2018,” HPOU President Doug Griffith said.

“How can you sit there and preach that other people should be held accountable when you don’t hold yourself accountable? Obviously he knew well before 2021,” Griffith said.

The first public comments on suspended cases were made on February 16 in a tweeted statement that said Finner had “learned that a significant number of adult sexual assault cases were suspended due to ‘staffing shortages,’ which is unacceptable…this.” “Should never have happened and will not continue.”

Then, at a news conference on Feb. 22, Finner announced that up to 4,017 sex crimes cases had been dropped, saying he first learned about the code in 2021. And on February 26, he tweeted that they had found that another 260,000 cases had been closed using the code.

And during a press conference on March 7, he reiterated: “In November 2021, it was first brought to my attention that this code was being used in a Special Victims Division briefing.” At that time, I told them the code was unacceptable and would never use again.”

Since then, Finner has revealed that all sex crime cases have been reviewed and DNA hits have been found in about 100. HPD had reviewed more than a third of the 260,000 other cases as of last week. Most had no leads and 54 charges were filed.