Houston’s police chief announces his resignation amid scandal involving 264,000 suspended cases

The city of Houston now has a new interim police chief after the former chief abruptly announced his resignation earlier this week amid a scandal involving an unusually high number of suspended criminal investigations.

In February, then-Chief Troy Finner admitted that the department had liberally used an internal code called “staffing shortages” to suspend cases. Since 2016, the code has been used around 264,000 times, Blaze News previously reported.

“This is unacceptable, take a look at this and get back to me.”

Finner claimed he first learned of the apparent abuse of the code in November 2021, about eight months after becoming chief, and immediately ordered the department to stop using it. This order must have been largely ignored as trials continued to be suspended due to “staffing shortages,” resulting in approximately 4,000 reports of adult sexual assault that were never investigated.

Since February, the suspended cases scandal has continued to consume Finner, but on Tuesday the situation came to a head when KHOU revealed that Finner had participated in an email conversation in July 2018, more than three years before him who mentioned the code claimed he had heard of it.

In the July 20, 2018, email, then-Chief of Staff George Mixon wrote that a Houston police officer used the code in a hit-and-run case, even though the report included “a full license plate number and description of the suspect.” Finner, who was acting chief executive at the time, responded: “(Kevin Deese, head of the vehicle crime division), that’s unacceptable, look into it and contact me.”

When asked about the email on Tuesday, Finner claimed he didn’t remember it. “Do you expect anyone to remember everything in every email that comes in? This is completely, completely unreasonable,” he said.

Finner also noted that the email would not damage his reputation or affect his position as boss. “Trying to associate this with me being untruthful or something like that isn’t going to work,” he said.

At around 7 p.m., the department’s X account announced a formal event opinion from Finner, which read in part: “Although the phrase ‘persistent staffing shortage’ was included in this 2018 email, there was nothing that alerted me to its existence as a code or the manner in which it was applied within the department.” has drawn attention.”

However, Houston Mayor John Whitmire called for an independent panel to investigate the issue and suggested Finner’s job was likely in jeopardy.

At approximately 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Whitmire announced that Finner had decided to retire effective immediately. Whitmire then appointed Executive Vice Chief Larry Satterwhite as acting police chief.

“This decision is made with full confidence in Acting Chief Satterwhite’s ability to lead and maintain the high standards of our department,” the mayor’s statement said.

Whitmire also addressed the personnel change at a city council meeting Wednesday morning. “I would like to thank Chief Finner for his many years of public service,” he said.

“I will have more to say, probably in a press release, about how this came about. But it is my responsibility to ensure the public safety of all Houstonians. And the decision was made.”

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