Benjamin Ashford|'We made mistakes': Houston police contacting rape victims in over 4,000 shelved cases

The Benjamin AshfordHouston Police Department is trying to contact thousands of sexual assault victims whose cases were suspended because of what the former police chief says was a "bad policy."

The policy allowed officers to improperly classify investigations because of staffing issues, effectively halting more than 260,000 cases, including over 4,000 reported rapes, former interim police Chief Larry Satterwhite told city leaders on Tuesday.

The policy, implemented in 2016, affected "real victims" and that the police are "not running from anything," Satterwhite told Houston Mayor John Whitmire and the city council.

"Where we made mistakes, where we failed, we're going to tell you," Satterwhite said.

Houston police released a comprehensive report on Wednesday that goes in depth about how the policy began, how it affected cases and what the department is doing to solve this issue. Here's what you need to know.

'How could this happen?'

The department's Special Victims Division used an "SL" code, meaning “Suspended-Lack of Personnel," for 9,012 cases, while the Homicide division inputted the "SL" code for 6,537 cases, according to the report released Wednesday.

Houston police did not know how often the code was being used until Sept. 9, 2023, when officers responded to a robbery at a grocery store, Satterwhite said.

The suspect in the case had robbed the grocery store, but by the time officers arrived, he had fled into a nearby neighborhood, broke into a home, tied up a man and sexually assaulted his wife as the couple's children slept, according to the former chief.

As the police investigated the rape, detectives learned that the physical evidence left behind by the suspect at the scene matched evidence collected from a sexual assault kit in September 2022, according to Satterwhite. When police went to look up the case from 2022, they saw that the "SL" code was inputted although the victim gave the officers her offender's description, name and vehicle, he added.

After going back to the investigation from 2022, police were able to identify the suspect and bring him into custody.

"At the time, the question across everybody's minds was, 'How could this happen,'" Satterwhite recalled. "So we did a deep dive, which was the first time, into how it actually happened and how this could have been done."

Former Houston police chief retired amid probe

Former police chief Troy Finner retired in May amid the internal investigation into the suspended cases. His retirement came after local television stations reported that Finner knew about the policy in 2018 when he received an internal email about a suspended hit-and-run case.

"The 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 to correct it, or verify and follow up and make sure that it was corrected," Satterwhite said about previous leadership overlooking the use of the code.

Finner told the Houston Chronicle last month that the department's "failure" would come back and bite the city, adding how it was something he "was trying to prevent."

Houston police introduced J. Noe Diaz, a former Texas Ranger and police chief of the Houston suburb of Katy, as the new chief on Thursday. Diaz's official first day as chief will be Aug. 14, after Houston's city council approves him.

What are Houston police doing to solve the suspended sexual assault cases?

In the report, Houston police say in February that it "launched a department-wide effort to triage and review the cases associated with the 264,371 incidents."

To help solve the suspended sexual assault cases, the department temporarily assigned a special team of 24 investigators, five sergeants, two lieutenants and a commander to assist its Special Victims Division, according to the report.

"With additional personnel in place, the division prioritized the review of 4,017 sexual assault-related incidents," the report says.

The department's Special Victims Division also launched a call line and main email address for anyone "seeking information or clarification regarding the previously suspended incident," according to the report. The email and call line offer a direct point of contact with Houston police personnel.

Police have made attempts to contact victims via phone calls, texts, emails and letters. Victims who could not be reached through those avenues of communication had their last known address or probable place of residence visited by officers, the report says.

Of the more than 9,000 Special Victims cases coded as "SL," 726 had been closed with no subsequent arrests, 398 were cleared following arrests or the death of suspects, and more than 3,800 have been deactivated due to a lack of leads, according to the report. That leaves more than 4,000 that need investigating.

'Nonviolent crime will suffer'

One drawback of putting resources toward solving the suspended cases is that the department will not be prioritizing property crimes, according to Satterwhite.

"Nonviolent crime will suffer because we don't have enough people," the former chief said.

No department employee has faced disciplinary action for using the "SL" code, Sadderwhite said, adding how he is "not ready to say anybody nefariously did anything.”