Houston’s interim police chief responds to news the department has suspended incident reporting

HOUSTON – Houstonians got a glimpse of interim Houston Police Chief Larry Satterwhite on Wednesday. The 34-year HPD veteran was elevated after serving as one of former Chief Troy Finner’s right-hand men as executive assistant chief.

“I can only tell you what I remember,” Satterwhite told KPRC 2 investigator Mario Diaz as he pressed the use of the suspended code “SL,” used more than 260,000 times.

“Certainly, I think it was on the agenda and I remember something about it, but I don’t remember enough about it,” he added.

Satterwhite talks about the November 2021 meeting in which Finner first claimed to have learned that criminal incident reports were being suspended using the code “SL.” Satterwhite told KPRC 2 he briefly attended the meeting. Then he left for a security tour of Astroworld at NRG Park.

“So it was very obvious that we had a problem, I think, towards the end of last year,” Satterwhite said.

A few minutes later, he said: “I mean it’s actually towards the end of 2023, beginning of January, you know, I had a lot of things to do, that still wasn’t my goal.”

Shortly afterward, the acting chief said it was “late last year, early this year that we really started to think about it carefully and I started to really be fully aware of what was happening.”

Three times, the interim chief told the room and Houstonians watching at home when he first heard about the controversial code. While he says he’s heard about suspending incident reporting by the end of 2023, Satterwhite struggled to remember the period he called a clear problem.

“It was maybe January, maybe February. That’s the problem here is that I’m trying to ask myself exactly when and what and what I may or may not have actually heard, and so I don’t want it to sound like, I just don’t know ,” Satterwhite told us.

Diaz went on to ask, “I understand Chief, but when you tell us and you talk to Houstonians live on television right now and you say you were aware of the use of this code last year last, we ask you the question again. and you come back and say, “Well, I think I heard,” “I’m not so sure,” we just experienced this in the last three months?

The acting chief told him, “Well, no, and I don’t want to be there.” Coming back to this topic where you’re getting misinformation, I really, like I said, I mean maybe something, I heard something. and maybe it was on a specific case or something like that towards the end or beginning of the year, I just don’t know.

KPRC 2 investigators wanted to know why the case wasn’t passed to then-Chief Troy Finner.

“I don’t know. Like I said, I didn’t, I’m at that point where I guess I didn’t sign up, I’m on recall now,” Satterwhite said.

Apologizing for any confusion, Satterwhite expressed remorse, saying: “I’m sorry, it’s not like I knew we were suspending business and doing all these things you know because of lack of manpower about sexual assault, I didn’t know any of that. .”

Satterwhite and Mayor John Whitmire say they plan to be transparent as the investigation into the suspended incident reports continues.

A big question surrounding the investigation is Hatcher’s groundbreaking letter that KPRC 2 investigators first told you about last Friday. As HPD seeks to conclude the IAD’s investigation into its role in handling the suspended cases, the mayor hopes to release a public report immediately afterward.