HOUSTON — Houston Mayor John Whitmire spoke Wednesday morning about the retirement of Troy Finner as Houston police chief.
Whitmire said he felt sick when he saw the report of the email that showed that now-former Chief Finner had known about the controversial 'lack of personnel' code earlier than previously stated. It was an email first reported by KHOU 11's Jeremy Rogalski less than 12 hours before news of Finner's retirement broke.
Whitmire said the issue was distracting the Houston Police Department from fighting crime and that this was the last straw.
"I'm very confident it was in the best interests for Houston, the department and for Chief Finner," Whitmire said.
The mayor also said he had been in constant contact with Finner over the past several days, but the email showing that Finner knew of the suspended lack of personnel code earlier than previously stated was what led to a conversation, during which Finner submitted his letter of retirement.
During Wednesday's city council meeting, the mayor and other councilmembers praised Finner's work over the past 34 years and many expressed disappointment over the outcome. Whitmire held a news conference afterwards, saying that ultimately the decision was made in order to get the department to focus on crime fighting again.
"Here's the bottom line," Whitmire said. "Chief Finner was spending so much time dealing with the press, dealing with the department. He hasn't had a conversation with the employee groups. It was affecting operations at HPD. That's the bottom line. I dealt with it because it was a distraction to the mission of the men and women in HPD."
Whitmire says it is too early to reveal a timeline to put in place a permanent chief. He says right now there is a smooth transition, with acting Chief Larry Satterwhite taking the lead at the department.
Satterwhite spoke with KHOU 11's Jason Miles Wednesday after assuming chief responsibilties.
You can see Whitmire's full news confnerence here:
Before the news conference, Whitmire addressed the retirement at Houston City Council:
KHOU 11's Len Cannon spoke with Chief Finner Wednesday morning. Finner told him he's not ready to comment.
Finner had been chief of Houston police since being appointed to the post in March 2021 by then-Mayor Sylvester Turner. He was tapped as chief to replace outgoing chief Art Acevedo, who had accepted the chief job with the Miami Police Department.
Before becoming chief, Finner, a 34-year veteran of the department, was an HPD executive assistant.
The news of his retirement comes less than 12 hours after KHOU 11's Jeremy Rogalski broke the story on an email referencing the 'suspended -- lack of personnel' code in 2018, showing FInner knew about the controversial code more than three years earlier than he publicly claimed.
Read Whitmire's full email below:
“Good evening,
"I have accepted the retirement of Troy Finner as Chief of Police, and have appointed Larry Satterwhite Acting Chief of Police effective 10:31pm tonight [May 8].
"The decision comes with full confidence in Acting Chief Satterwhite’s abilities to lead and uphold the high standards of our department.
"I ask everyone to extend their full cooperation and support to Acting Chief Satterwhite during this transitional period.
"Thank you for what you do on behalf of Houstonians every day. Thank you for standing the watch.
"Be safe,
"Mayor Whitmire”
The first public comments on suspended cases were made in a tweeted statement on Feb. 16, which said Finner “learned a significant number of adult sexual assault cases were suspended due to ‘lack of personnel’ which is unacceptable … this should have never happened and will not continue.”
Then, at a Feb. 22 press conference, Finner announced as many as 4,017 sex crime cases had been suspended and said he first learned about the code in 2021. And on Feb. 26 he tweeted that they found another 260,000 cases were suspended with the code.
And during a March 7 news conference, he reiterated that “November 2021 was the first time I was made aware of this code being used in a briefing by the Special Victims Division. At that time, I told them the code was unacceptable and never use it again.”
Since then, Finner has announced that all the sex crimes cases have been reviewed and about 100 have DNA hits. HPD had reviewed more than a third of the 260,000 other cases as of last week. Most had no leads and 54 charges had been filed.
Background of 'lack of personnel' code
- May 7: Houston Mayor John Whitmire accepts Chief Finner's retirement
- May 7: KHOU 11 Investigates: HPD email shows Chief Finner knew about suspended cases code earlier than he claimed
- April 30: 45 suspects charged in HPD's review of suspended incident reports due to 'lack of personnel' code, Finner says
- April 18: ‘We remain laser-focused’ | HPD says all 4,000+ suspended adult sex crime reports have been reviewed
- April 11: KHOU 11 Investigates: 30 charges filed in HPD suspended cases
- April 8: HPD had named suspects in dozens of sex crime cases that were shelved
- April 2: Some charges filed as HPD continues to review cases suspended under department's 'lack of personnel' code, Finner says
- March 20: Independent review committee begins reviewing HPD's handling of suspended cases
- March 19: Police union calls for Houston Police Chief Troy Finner’s recusal in suspended case probe
- March 8: How does the statute of limitations impact HPD's suspended cases due to 'lack of personnel' code?
- March 7: Assaults top list of HPD cases suspended for lack of personnel
- March 7: Houston mayor calls for outside review into HPD after thousands of cases were suspended
- March 1: 2 HPD assistant chiefs demoted after hundreds of thousands of reported crimes were suspended, police officers' union says
- February 28: 'Things need to change' | Sexual assault survivors want voices to be heard
- February 28: 'I don't want to leave any victim behind' | HPD chief vows to clean up system that allowed 264,000 reported crimes to be suspended
- February 22: 'We owe them an apology' | HPD to thoroughly investigate 'suspended' sexual assault cases
- February 19: Mayor Whitmire weighs in on sexual assault cases that were suspended by Houston Police Department
- February 16: 'Should have never happened' | Houston police to review sexual assault cases that had been suspended
This is a breaking story. Stay with KHOU 11 for updates as we get them.