HOUSTON (AP) 鈥 Houston鈥檚 mayor has replaced the city鈥檚 police chief, saying Wednesday it was the best thing for a law enforcement agency that鈥檚 still under intense scrutiny over why hundreds of thousands of cases were never investigated, including more than 4,000 sexual assault allegations.
Mayor John Whitmire said he did not push out former Police Chief Troy Finner but accepted his retirement as the police department needed to move forward under new leadership.
During a news conference, Whitmire said the ongoing investigation and questions of what Finner knew and when were having a cumulative impact 鈥渙n the morale in the department, the focus of the officers and the confidence that Houstonians need to have in their police department.鈥
Whitmire, who took office in January, had expressed confidence in Finner after the chief revealed in February that more than 264,000 in the past eight years were never submitted for investigation as officers assigned them an internal code that cited a lack of available personnel.
Finner had said he ordered his command staff in a November 2021 meeting to stop using it after learning of its existence. Despite this, he said, he learned on Feb. 7 of this year that it was still being used to dismiss a significant number of adult sexual assault cases.
Whitmire鈥檚 confidence in Finner seemed to quickly end this week after Houston television stations reported Tuesday that Finner had been informed about the dismissed incident reports in a 2018 email.
Whitmire called the discovery of the email the 鈥渇inal straw.鈥
鈥淭he bottom line is the department is being distracted due to issues with the investigation ... from its primary mission of fighting crime,鈥 Whitmire told city council members. He appointed assistant Chief Larry Satterwhite as acting chief.
In a late Wednesday afternoon post on the social platform X, Finner did not address his sudden retirement. He called the last few months of his career 鈥渢he most challenging鈥 and 鈥減ainful鈥 because "some victims of violent crime did not receive the quality care and service they deserved."
鈥淏ut, it was beneficial because we implemented measures to ensure this never happens again," Finner said on the platform formerly known as Twitter. 鈥淥ur department and our profession will be better because of it.鈥
During a news conference Wednesday afternoon, Satterwhite was asked by reporters about when he first learned that cases were being dismissed because of a lack of personnel.
Satterwhite, who has been with the police department for 34 years, said he briefly attended the November 2021 meeting where Finner told his command staff to stop using the code but left as he was focused on other duties. Satterwhite said that sometime in late 2023 or earlier this year, he might have heard something about the code related to a specific case but it wasn鈥檛 until later that he learned of the magnitude of the problem.
鈥淲e as an agency 鈥 on this one failed,鈥 Satterwhite said.
Satterwhite said becoming acting chief has been difficult under these circumstance as he and Finner are longtime friends and attended the police academy together.
鈥淚鈥檓 going to do my best to make it better and then we shall see,鈥 Satterwhite said.
Finner had apologized in March about the use of the internal code to dismiss the incident reports and had said he would be transparent and truthful in the ongoing investigation.
Regarding the 2018 email made public this week, Finner posted a statement on X saying he did not remember that email until he was shown a copy of it on Tuesday.
鈥淓ven though the phrase 鈥榮uspended lack of personnel鈥 was included in the 2018 email, there was nothing that alerted me to its existence as a code or how it was applied within the department,鈥 Finner wrote.
Several city council members on Wednesday expressed gratitude for Finner, who joined the Houston police department in 1990 and became chief in 2021. City Councilor Carolyn Evans-Shabazz said she misses him already.
鈥淗is efforts have significantly contributed to our community鈥檚 safety and wellbeing,鈥 Evans-Shabazz said.
After Finner made public the department鈥檚 use of the internal code to dismiss these cases, Whitmire launched a review by an independent panel. Whitmire said he hoped the panel could provide a public update next week.
The Houston Area Women鈥檚 Center, Houston鈥檚 largest non-profit supporting victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, declined to comment Wednesday on Finner鈥檚 retirement. But in a social media post in February, it said sexual assault survivors 鈥減ay a high price鈥 when investigations aren鈥檛 clearly resolved.
Police departments around the country are facing an urgent staffing crisis as many younger officers resign and older officers retire, according to an August report by the Police Executive Research Forum. Applications to fill vacancies plummeted amid a national reckoning over how police respond to minorities.
An April 27 report by the same Washington-based think tank found more encouraging numbers.
鈥淪mall and medium agencies now have more sworn officers than they had in January 2020,鈥 according to the forum鈥檚 report. 鈥淚n large agencies, sworn staffing slightly increased during 2023, but it is still more than 5% below where it was in January 2020.鈥
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Miller reported from Oklahoma City.
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