Houston police chief won’t say if thousands of dropped cases reveals bigger problems within agency

By JUAN A. LOZANO
Associated Press

HOUSTON (AP) — Houston’s police chief is declining to say if recent revelations that more than 264,000 cases filed with Houston police in the past eight years were dropped speak to broader problems within his agency. During a nearly two-hour meeting Tuesday with reporters and local community leaders, Chief Troy Finners said his department has lost public trust. In February, Finner announced thousands of incident reports, including for sexual assault, were never submitted for investigation. Instead, officers assigned them an internal code that cited a lack of personnel available. Finner says there will be accountability but asked residents to wait for an internal investigation to be finished by the end of April.