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The interim police chief of Houston said Wednesday that poor communication by department leaders is to blame for the continuation of a “bad” policy that allowed officers to drop more than 264,000 cases, including more than 4,000 sexual assault cases and at least two homicides.
Interim Chief Larry Satterwhite told the Houston City Council that the code implemented in 2016 was meant to identify why each case was dropped — for example, because an arrest had been made, there were no leads or a lack of personnel. Instead, officers acting without guidance from above used the code SL for “Suspended-Lack of Personnel” to justify decisions to stop investigating all manner of crimes, even when violence was involved.
