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Houston police officials said Thursday that they are working with the Houston Area Women’s Center to expand training for sex crimes investigators and improve the department’s process for notifying victims about updates in their cases.
The changes mirror recommendations made by the Houston Police Department Independent Review Panel, which Mayor John Whitmire has tasked with scrutinizing the department’s handling of hundreds of thousands of cases classified as “suspended” due to staffing shortages. The panel and Houston police have been closely reviewing the department’s handling of sex crimes. It’s not yet clear how many of those cases weren’t fully investigated, according to agency leaders.
HPD Commander Elizabeth Lorenzana, who leads the Special Victims Division, said nearly two dozen officers in the division will now be required to take a 55-hour training program administered by HAWC. The training, which addresses various types of sexual abuse and how the brain is affected by trauma, among other topics, previously was voluntary. (Members of HPD’s Victim Services Unit, which helps connect crime victims with social service agencies, currently participate in the training program.)
“All my team members at Special Victims will be registering for it,” Lorenzana said after a press conference hosted by the Women’s Center, the Houston area’s designated rape crisis center.
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Sonia Corrales, deputy CEO of the Women’s Center, said she and other staff members met with Acting Police Chief Larry Satterwhite last week and discussed updating the department’s victim notification protocols. The rules cover how and when officers should notify survivors of sexual assault about the results of their forensic examination, as well as how to keep them updated on developments in their case if they wish to pursue one. Potential changes to the protocols are still under review, Corrales said.
HPD and HAWC leaders also emphasized Thursday the importance of improving collaboration and coordination among various organizations dealing with sexual assault, a recommendation of the review panel.
The committee also said HPD should expand the hours when officers are available for a forensic interview, though the topic wasn’t discussed at Thursday’s press conference. The panel found forensic interviews, which involve trained professionals asking survivors to recount their assault or abuse, were only available during business hours and the work week.
“Although I have only been assigned there for two months, I have a great team of support that I’m leading through this and we are working to implement all the recommendations,” Lorenzana said. Lorenzana, who previously served as commander of the agency’s Emergency Communications Division, assumed her new role after former police chief Troy Finner demoted her predecessor.
A long-term remedy
The update comes one month after Finner retired amid frustration with the department’s response to the suspended cases scandal. In early February, Finner ordered a review of 264,000 incident reports, including 4,000 sexual assault reports that were classified as “suspended – lack of personnel.” Investigators have been examining whether the reports were properly investigated before being shelved.
As of mid-April, almost all of the suspended adult sexual assault reports had been reviewed. Prior to his retirement, Finner said more than three-quarters of the reviewed cases were considered inactive with no workable leads. He said the cases can be reopened if HPD receives additional evidence.
About 2,600 sexual assault investigations were rightfully suspended, but officers used the wrong code, HPD officials said. The department allows officers to suspend cases when an arrest is made, or when a supervisor determines there are no more workable leads and there’s not enough information to continue an investigation.
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The outside review panel is tasked with looking over HPD’s shoulder and giving recommendations for how the Special Victims Division and the entire department can improve its operations. The panel presented a preliminary report to Whitmire and Houston city council members earlier this month.
Among the chief findings: HPD does not use a consistent, agency-wide system for managing and classifying criminal cases, which has increased the likelihood that cases are getting lost in the system. The report’s authors also found that checks and balances are not in place to prevent suspended or inactive reports from getting lost in the shuffle.
“We learned very early on that due to lapses in technology, that the process can very easily become inundated and complicated in ways that have directly contributed to the problems that we see today,” Christina Nowak, a member of the committee, said before council.
Emilee Whitehurst, president and CEO of the Women’s Center, said Thursday that the report made clear that there are “systematic issues” that HPD needs to address. Whitehurst said a solution will come from increased collaboration among all parties involved in combating sex crimes.
“I think the remedy is going to be a longer-term process,” Whitehurst said. “Our role here today is to reinforce to the greater community that holding HPD accountable also means expecting genuine collaboration. Because had we had ongoing, genuine collaboration across all systems, I don’t think this would have happened the same way. It’s bigger than just HPD.”
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