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Houston Mayor John Whitmire’s announcement of an independent panel to scrutinize the police department’s handling of over 261,000 cases left unresolved due to staffing shortages has shed light on the severity of the situation. Obtaining copies of sexual assault and other incident reports marked with an “SL” code by the Houston Police Department (HPD), which signifies cases suspended due to personnel shortages, ABC13 has brought forth troubling details. In one report, a 35-year-old woman alleges an intrusion into her apartment, awakening to find someone “kissing her buttocks,” as noted in an HPD report from 2018, a case that wasn’t pursued due to manpower constraints. Despite Chief Troy Finner instructing officers to cease using the “SL” code in November 2021 upon discovering its prevalence, investigations reveal its continued application over 114,200 times since. Another report outlines a 33-year-old’s complaint of being “sexually assaulted by the (suspect) who is a friend of a friend,” suggesting a potential lead for investigation, yet it too was affected by the personnel shortage code. Mayor Whitmire’s initiative to form an independent panel aims to address the alarming number of unresolved cases, especially those involving serious offenses like “Injury to a child – Aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.” Furthermore, instances like a man reporting power steering failure while driving, suspecting tampering with the steering rod, only to have his case sidelined under the “lack of personnel” code, underscore the gravity of the situation.

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