As Houston Police Department investigations continue into the suspension of roughly 260,000 cases that came to light earlier this year, officials are now attributing the issue to historic understaffing.

How it happened

HPD has been the spotlight of an internal investigation since February when it was revealed to the public that the police department dismissed more than 260,000 investigations in the last eight years due to a lack of personnel.

In a presentation made during a July 31 Houston City Council meeting, Acting Houston Police Chief Larry Satterwhite revealed the “lack of personnel” code likely evolved from the unregulated “suspended” code that was created in 2014 under the leadership of former police chief Charles McClelland.

McClelland began to use the code after he made an appeal to Houston City Council seeking additional resources for the department to address staffing shortages, according to the HPD report on the investigation. At the time, a case was marked as suspended if it was not assigned to an investigator due to a lack of workable leads or due to a lack of adequate staffing, according to the report.



Satterwhite said it was the McClelland’s intention to revisit any suspended cases after more officers were hired. However, HPD continued to remain understaffed while cases continued to grow.

To date, the department has 485 fewer officers than it did in 2014 under McClelland.

The approach

Despite the shortage of officers, Satterwhite said the Special Victims Division began to develop a process to review each of the 264,371 suspended incidents.


A special team of 24 investigators, five sergeants, two lieutenants and a commander were temporarily assigned to the division to assist in reviewing and handling the cases.

Houston patrol officers were also pulled from the streets to assist in case management.

Cases were reviewed by division and type of crime. As of July 31:

  • Special Victims Division: 79% of cases have been reviewed and 57% of cases have been closed
  • Major Assaults and Family Violence: 56% of cases have been reviewed, 18% of cases have been closed
  • Homicide Division: 100% of cases have been reviewed, 32% of cases have been closed
  • Property and Financial Crimes: 61% of cases have been reviewed, 21% of cases have been closed
  • Vehicular crimes: 95% of cases have been reviewed, 69% of cases have been closed
  • Other divisions: 98% of cases have been reviewed, 94% of cases have been closed

Satterwhite said he expects all cases to be fully reviewed or resolved by Aug. 31.

The action taken



The suspended lack of personnel code has been prohibited from being used for any sexual assault cases or violent crime.

Based on the National Incident-Based Reporting System statistics that HPD reports to the FBI monthly, approximately 25% of crimes committed in Houston are considered violent.

Satterwhite said nonviolent crimes, such as property damage, may still be marked as suspended until an officer is available to review the case.

“We still don’t have enough people,” he said. “I have given an order that no serious violent crimes will ever be suspended just because we don’t have enough people, but that will come at the expense of nonviolent property crime. However, we have to focus on violent crime; that is our No. 1 priority.”


More details

During budget workshops in May, Houston Mayor John Whitmire and Satterwhite expressed a need for investing in higher salaries for police officers, additional cadet classes and a more aggressive approach to recruiting.

Satterwhite asked for funds in the next fiscal year to:

  • Increase the current starting pay from $42,000 to $57,000
  • Hire 10 mid-management lieutenant positions, 49 delimited civilian positions and an additional 150 investigators
  • Pay officers overtime and retired officers who help the department

As it stands, the department’s 2025 budget will only cover 100 new officers despite Satterwhite saying the department will need another 2,000 officers to best serve Houstonians.

Notable quote



Houston City Council member Sally Alcorn suggested it may be time to increase Houston's current voter-approved property tax revenue cap to fund necessary needs in the city, such as police officers and public safety.

“This is a horrible situation at HPD, but the underlying issue is lack of staffing,” she said. “We have known this now for 10 years, and I think this is important for the public to know ... that we cannot have it both ways. We cannot have super low taxes and demand that we do a much better job at policing. This report says nothing else to me, but that we must go to the voters to increase the revenue cap.”