Houston Police Department Chief Troy Finner announces he's retiring, Satterwhite named Acting Chief
HOUSTON - Houston Police Department Chief Troy Finner has announced that he's retiring. That's according to an e-mail obtained by FOX 26 from Houston Mayor John Whitmire.
In the e-mail, Whitmire stated that he accepted Finner's retirement.
According to Whitmire, Larry Satterwhite has been named Acting Chief of Police as of 10:31 p.m. Tuesday night.
The announcement comes following several big stories in the news including the investigation into 264,000 cases suspended with the code of 'lack of personnel.'
SUGGESTED: HPD Chief Finner involved in 2018 email using 'suspended lack of personnel' code
On Tuesday, an e-mail surfaced showing that Finner was involved in a conversation regarding the suspended "lack of personnel code" back in 2018.
Houston Police Chief Troy Finner retires
Houston Police Chief Troy Finner has announced that he is retiring, according to an email obtained by FOX 26 from Mayor John Whitmire. This comes amid an investigation into HPD's handling of thousands of incident reports that were suspended with the code "lack of personnel" over the past several years.
Finner was included in an email chain regarding a road rage incident marked with the code by a senior officer despite there being leads to follow the case. At the time of the email, Finner was the Executive Assistant Chief over Patrol Operations.
In the email response, Finner calls the lack of investigation "unacceptable" and directs officers to follow up on the case.
Since the investigation into the "lack of personnel" code, Finner has said repeatedly he was unaware the close existed until 2021.
Chief Finner claimed in a recent tweet he has "no recollection" of the email and it was included in the internal investigation. "I have always been truthful and have never set out to mislead anyone about anything, including this investigation," he said.
In his statement, he also says though the phrase "suspended lack of personnel" was mentioned in the 2018 email, nothing alerted him of its existence as a code or how it was used within the department.
Recently, Finner announced that HPD has concluded its internal affairs investigation into the 264,000 suspended cases. During this review, there have been 54 charges filed and nearly two dozen arrests.
Finner was born in the Fifth Ward area of Houston, was raised in the Hiram Clark neighborhood, was a Madison High School graduate, obtained a Bachelors of Science, Criminal Justice at Sam Houston University, and a Masters of Criminology at the University of Houston-Clear Lake.
Finner began his law enforcement career in 1990. He is 31-year veteran of serving the citizens of Houston at the Office of Public Affairs, Southwest Division, South Gessner Division, and the Internal Investigation Command.