Houston’s police chief is retiring amid investigation into 264,000 suspended incident reports

Houston’s police chief abruptly retired Wednesday after investigations into hundreds of thousands of reports of criminal incidents, including more than 4,000 cases of sexual assault, were halted due to staffing shortages.

Houston Police Chief Troy Finner’s resignation was announced by Mayor John Whitmire during a City Council meeting on Wednesday. The mayor said Finner, who joined the police force in 1990 and has served as chief since 2021, decided to retire after discussions with Whitmire on Tuesday.

“I consider Troy Finner a friend. “It was difficult to accept his resignation, but it was in the best interest of Houstonians,” Whitmire said during a press conference press conference Wednesday. “The investigation had become disruptive to the department.”

The police department has been under scrutiny since February, when an internal review found that about 264,000 reports of criminal incidents had been suspended since 2016 because they were assigned a “short-staffing” code. Incident reports included violent crimes, sexual assaults and property crimes.

In April, Finner said police had made progress in reviewing the reports and that the code’s internal “staffing shortage” investigation had been completed. Whitmire said Wednesday that an independent review panel appointed by the mayor in March will release its findings next week.

Whitmire has named Deputy Police 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. I ask everyone to give Acting Chief Satterwhite their full cooperation and support during this transition period,” Whitmire said in a statement opinion.

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Retirement follows reports that the boss knew about the suspension code in 2018

The announcement followed local television reports Tuesday that revealed Finner knew about the controversial policy after receiving an internal email about a hit-and-run case that was dropped in 2018, three years before he claimed he knew about the code.

At a press conference in March, Finner apologized to the public and said he first learned about the code in November 2021. At the time, Finner said he told officials the policy was “unacceptable and they should never use it again.”

He added that he discovered in February that the code was still being used to suspend a significant number of adult sexual assault cases. An internal investigation was subsequently launched, which revealed that the policy was also used in other divisions within the department.

In one opinion Published Tuesday, Finner said he had no recollection of the 2018 email and remained “committed to providing as complete an account of the internal investigation as permitted by law once it is complete,” he reiterated that he knew nothing about the code or how it was applied within the department, even though it was referenced in the email.

“I have always been honest and have never tried to mislead anyone about anything, including this investigation,” Finner said. “I promised an independent and thorough investigation, and my lack of knowledge of this email serves as evidence of my independence.”

Houston police are investigating suspended reports

According to Finner, the internal code has been used department-wide since 2016. He said more than 4,000 reports of adult sex crimes were filed and then dropped in the last eight years because of the code.

Other people suspended included 109,000 reports filed with the aggravated assault unit and 91,000 for property and financial crimes, Finner said in March. More than 6,500 reports filed with the homicide unit were also dismissed, but most of those related to allegations of assaults and threats before 2018, according to Finner.

Last month, Finner said investigators and officials were reviewing about 10,000 reports per week. As of April 30, more than 107,000 reports had been reviewed and nearly 50,000 “met the criteria for closure, release, inactivation or suspension,” Finner said in a statement.

He noted that all reports of incidents of adult sex crimes had been reviewed and concluded that most reports had been closed or deleted. “We scheduled forensic interviews with 427 complainants/survivors and conducted 1,765 location checks at the complainants’ last known addresses,” Finner added.

Finner said a total of 54 charges had been filed against 45 suspects as of April 30. Most were charged with misdemeanors, while other suspects were charged with felonies.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Troy Finner is retiring as Houston police chief amid internal investigations