Houston Police Department

Special Crimes

In 2009, the Special Crimes Division was created in an effort to enhance the Houston Police Department’s mission to investigate, educate, and bring attention to crimes of domestic violence, sexual assault, and elder abuse. By increasing the level of responsiveness with victims, as well as improving collaboration with victim support services and community outreach organizations, the Special Crimes Division strengthens the quality of its investigations and support for victims and their families. The Special Crimes Division manages the following units:

Sex Crimes
The Sex Crimes Unit has the responsibility of investigating sexual assaults of adult victims and other sex-related offenses. The unit’s crime analysis focus is the linking and identification of serial sexual assault offenders.

Additionally, during 2013, the Houston Police Department submitted all back logged sexual assault kits for testing at independent labs. As a result of this testing, a task force of investigators was formed to address the many cases that have been re-opened for further investigation due to new evidence that resulted from the testing of the sexual assault kits.

Family Violence
The Family Violence Unit is responsible for the follow-up investigation of incidents involving family violence that do not involve the death of the complainant. The unit is also responsible for receiving and entering protective orders into the Texas and National Crime Information Center (TCIC and NCIC) databases. Additionally, the Family Violence Unit investigates reports of elder abuse submitted by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, which includes Adult Protective Services (APS).

The Family Violence Unit also has counselors on site to provide immediate resource opportunities to victims of family violence.