13 examines what HPD leader told internal matters during the examination in a suspended code scandal

Houston, Texas (KTRK) – Almost a year ago, the Texan Attorney General of the Houston police authority asked to publish more than 100 internal documents that are published on the controversial practice of suspending thousands of cases due to lack of personnel in connection with the suspension of thousands of cases.

HPD struggled to keep these records privately and ask the AG to rethink its decision. But last month the AG HPD announced that it was “prohibited to ask the general prosecutor's decision”.

The AG announced HPD again that it had to publish these data records. More than a year after Eyewitness News had requested this internal communication, HPD finally published it for ABC13.

The documents show discrepancies about who has been instructed to no longer use the controversial “SL – suspended lack of personnel” and when.

The “SL” code was used by HPD for years to complain or examine cases due to a lack of workers, including some violent cases or cases with practical leads.

“The department has never been fully occupied here during my term. At the moment because of vacancies and five others due to a longer military vacation, special tasks or other circumstances that go beyond my control. These vacancies took several months,” said a commander of the HPD attacks and the department for family force in a department for family members.

This commander said he was assigned to his division in July 2021 and did not know how exactly he learned that the SL code was used.

He said that according to the standard operating procedures of the department “Large Sergeant of the attack units can use the SL code to expose a crime if there is not enough personnel to carry out an examination, and you should regularly check such cases to determine when they can be assigned.”

Another commander of the Westside division said in his explanation that the code had been “standard practice for the division” for years.

Despite these claims that HPD commanders knew about the code for years, the former police chief of Houston, Troy Finner, stood to be the fact that he only knew at the end of 2021 because he got through the patrol department and not through investigations. Finner retired last May after 34 years in the department.

Finner previously said that he had ordered the code to no longer be used during a meeting with the Executive employee in November 2021. This meeting and command of Finners were previously confirmed to ABC13. However, several people surveyed said that orders to use this code never went further than this meeting.

Finner previously commented on frustration about his management team, which his command did not enforce. He also admitted that he never followed it and said, the Astroworld tragedy, in which 10 people were killed at a concert in Houston, quickly focused on his entire focus.

In an explanation with internal matters, a commander of great attacks and family power said that he only received information in February 2024 to end the use of the SL code.

Last February, HPD announced that the SL code was exposed to more than 260,000 cases due to the lack of staff.

Several investigators who were interviewed in the SL code as part of the examination of internal matters stated that it was a common practice to suspend cases, long before Finner was boss. The documents show that the code was even written in the HPD standard operating process and was often used in training.

“The SL code was set up by my superiors in 2016 and I was trained about the use of the code. I never received a verbal or written guideline by mid-February 2024 so as not to use the code,” said a lieutenant of the special victim department in his statement on March 19, 2024.

And while HPD Leadership claimed that the code was not used in sex crimes for children, the documents published at 13 examinations show that these cases were suspended for two years until the practice was stopped in 2018.

In the internal examination, however, questions arose as to why sexual crimes for adults could still be suspended due to lack of personnel if the practice continued for another department.

“It was my strong faith, my desire and my dispute to increase the workers to avoid the use of this code. Accordingly, I kept the presentation to draw attention to the problem of suspended cases and to apply for 21 additional investigators. Recruitment department said in a survey of March 28, 2024 with the Department of Internal Affairs.

The examination of the SL is based on a sexual attack of adults, who appeared in 2022, which was never examined due to a lack of staff.

When the suspect was accused of sexual assault in 2023 of the robbery, the police learned that the suspect's DNA matched the suspended case.

“When I learned that the case of sexual assault from 2022 was deleted by an investigator in the special sacrifice in RMS using the” suspended -due to the lack of personnel “, this was the time when I became aware of the existence of the SL code and its use of the SL code, which was a case that was suspended by a manompoom statement.

During his time in the robbery, the commander said: “It was not a usual practice to use the Code SL.”

She also said she had never received instructions in 2023 to no longer use the use of the code, but when she stopped using it for the first time, February 2024.

Documents 13 Investigations get an insight into the top lead when the controversial code was published for the first time, but they could not be easily preserved.

Eyewitness News first requested the records last April, and despite two letters from the Texan General Prosecutor in June 2024 and April of this year, the city only published the records this week.

On Thursday, 13 investigations requested an interview with HPD Chief Noe Diaz to ask why they made the forbidden request, but he would not make themselves available to answer our questions.

13 investigations also asked Mayor John Whitmire why HPD could bring our request to standstill under his administration.

“It's importing to note that Mayor Whitmire is not Directly Involved in Processing Open Records Requests. The Decisions to Appeal to the Texas Attorney General Were Made by the Previous Hpd Administration. The Command Staff Has Been Replaced Mayor Whitmire's Appointment of Police Chief Noe Diaz.

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