Chief Troy Finner retired Wednesday from the Houston Police Department in a late-night resignation given to Mayor John Whitmire amid a probe into how the department has suspended thousands of criminal investigations, the Houston Landing reports. At issue is an internal department computer code that police used in 264,000 cases to suspend investigations due to a lack of personnel. The crimes included 4,000 sexual assault cases. Finner’s sudden departure came after media obtained an email that showed Finner had been aware of that code as early as 2018. Finner had previously said he learned of the code in 2021.
Whitmire named Assistant Police Chief Larry Satterwhite as acting chief of police, saying he had full confidence in Satterwhite’s abilities to “lead and uphold the high standards of our department.” The mayor told the City Council on Wednesday that he would provide more information about the circumstances of Finner’s departure later. Whitmire said the department's being forced to expend resources on old cases at the same time that new crimes flared played a role in the chief’s departure. “The current investigations and suspended cases have become such a distraction that I was convinced that the department had lost some of its focus to address the hot spots, response times, and I could go through a list of things that I think were being interrupted because of the time spent and new revelations on those disruptions,” Whitmire said.