Satterwhite Fills In As Interim Chief of Police at HPD-Investigates Suspended-Lack of Personnel Code

STATE & NATIONAL: Acting Houston Police Department Chief Larry Satterwhite is set to present the origin and cause of the controversial “Suspended – Lack of Personnel” code.

By Anne M Erbynstein

According to HPD and former police chief, Troy Finner, the code was used in police reports when there were no available detectives to investigate cases.

The lack of personnel code led to the suspension of more than a quarter-million incident reports. The code’s origin dates back to 2014 when HPD was working on its Report Management System (RMS).

The problem stemmed from the process that had been egregiously delayed in creating new labels and codes for statistical reporting.

In the course of making the necessary adjustments, it was that the code began being used by the Special Victims Division.

Former Chief Troy Finner reported that some cases with this code had DNA hits, while most had no leads. In February, Finner revealed that thousands of sexual assault investigations were suspended due to lack of personnel, using the same “Suspended-Lack of Personnel” code.

Today, Satterwhite, also, discussed steps necessary to be taken to prevent the insufficient use ofthe code inthe future.