Houston Police Department releases long-awaited report on scandal that suspended 264,000 criminal cases

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — The Houston Police Department released a report on its largest scandal in recent history on Wednesday.

HPD revealed in February that more than a quarter of a million cases filed by crime victims since 2016 were suspended because of inadequate staffing. The cases were labeled with a “Suspended – Lack of Personnel” code.

Because of the code, the 264,000 cases stopped getting investigated, including over 4,000 sexual assault cases.

We waited nearly half a year for an update about the investigation’s findings. HPD released the full report online around 9 a.m., and a full briefing followed in front of the Houston City Council.

You can view the full report below:

Months ago, Houston Mayor John Whitmire announced that there would be an internal investigation into what went wrong, who knew what, and how the code started in the first place. On Wednesday at 9 a.m., HPD Acting Chief Larry Satterwhite presented the report to the Houston City Council.

“The most biggest mistake that I’ve been able to see is just a failure to recognize what was going on and a failure to go in and truly try to correct it,” Satterwhite said during the briefing.

The report is 41 pages long, detailing after months of an internal investigation. It’s broken down into what the committee calls eight key findings.

This code that suspended the investigation of more than 264,000 incidents was implemented in 2016. Of those, 98% incidents happened after 2018.

READ MORE: HPD chief says investigation completed into code that led to 264K cases suspended

All of these incidents are organized in a records management system, which this investigation has found to be “antiquated,” adding that technical support is no longer available for it. A new records system is supposed to go live in March 2025.

The report also found that investigators were using this “SL code” as they were told. And there weren’t guidelines on how to use it based on certain crimes.

Based on how many incidents get reported to HPD, the report says there must be a process for sorting what takes priority.

The report’s final key takeaway was that HPD is understaffed and that it’s been a problem since 2014. The report says the reality is that “the department simply cannot investigate all crimes.”

So what happens now that HPD’s report has been published?

The report lists “critical” changes that have to be made to the department’s investigation workflow.

Meanwhile, the fallout has been tremendous over the past six months. Whitmire accepted the retirement of Troy Finner in May, and the now-former Houston Police Chief recently said he believes he was pushed out to bury the scandal.

“I’m proud to take the blows. But tell the whole story,” Finner told our partners at the Houston Chronicle.

Finner previously claimed he first heard of the code on Nov. 4, 2021, and ordered his leaders to never use it again.

RELATED: ‘Made me sick’: Mayor says he couldn’t look past 2018 email about code in lead up to Finner retiring

However, a 2018 email obtained by 13 Investigates shows Finner knew of the coding being used at least once, meaning he was aware of it three years earlier than he had previously claimed.

The July 20, 2018, email was addressed to several high-ranking HPD leaders, including then-Chief Art Acevedo and Finner, who was an executive assistant chief at the time.

Satterwhite took over after Finner left, but there have been a lot of questions about who is going to lead the department permanently going forward.

City leaders previously said a new chief would be picked by the end of July, and that date has quickly arrived. ABC13 plans to ask Whitmire about the new chief decision on Wednesday.

ABC13 has multiple crews working on this developing story. Tune into Eyewitness News’ afternoon newscasts for our full coverage of the findings.

SEE ALSO: Former HPD Chief Finner claims city trying to bury investigation into suspended cases, Chron reports