Houston police chief apologizes for department not investigating 264K cases due to staffing issues

By JUAN A. LOZANO
Associated Press

HOUSTON (AP) — Houston’s police chief is pledging to restore public trust in his department following revelations that more than 264,000 cases were dropped over the past eight years due to a lack of personnel. That number includes over 4,000 cases involving reported sexual assault. Last month Chief Troy Finner announced that hundreds of thousands of incident reports including for sexual assault and property crimes were never submitted for investigation. Instead, officers assigned them an internal code that cited a lack of personnel available. Finner apologized Thursday to victims whose cases were not reviewed and said efforts are underway to contact them and investigate their allegations.