Houston Police Department implements new guidelines for reporting federal crimes amid KPRC 2 Investigates findings

HOUSTON – Houston City Police Chief Troy Finner issued a new memo with guidelines on investigations for reporting crimes with the National Incident-Based Reporting System known as NIBRS.

The memo comes in the wake of findings by KPRC 2 Investigates, revealing discrepancies between the statistics voluntarily provided to NIBRS and those reflected in HPD crime statistics last March.

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KPRC 2 Investigates first showed you that statistics voluntarily provided to NIBRS did not match those HPD crime statistics, as reported on its website in March.

We took a look at the numbers after roughly 265,000 cases were suspended by the department including some 4,000 sexual assault cases.

KPRC 2 Investigates exposed the suspended code for the lack of personnel that was being used in cases involving children before 2018 and cases involving aggravated assault, homicide, motor vehicle theft, rape/sexual assault, and robberies thereafter.

NIBRS, overseen by the FBI, serves as a central repository for crime statistics from police departments nationwide, facilitating the identification of emerging crime trends.

NIBRS HPD MEMO (Copyright 2024 by KPRC Click2Houston - All rights reserved.)

Chief Finner’s memo, stamped April 4th, 2024, states, “[e]ach concerned division shall review and screen all “Investigation” offense reports submitted to the division to determine if the elements of a crime exist.”

If the term ‘investigation’ is used incorrectly a case manager can change the report by stating their reasoning in a supplemental report.

Law enforcement sources KPRC 2 Investigates spoke to say this will aid the department in correcting statistics where the numbers are actual people.

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