"He wasn't told about it. He discovered it." Mayor Whitmire defends Chief Finner
Chief Finner faces calls to resign
The call for Houston Police Chief Troy Finner to step down amidst revelations of shelved criminal cases over eight years intensifies, with activists pushing for accountability as Mayor John Whitmire defends Finner, claiming he was unaware of the issue until recently.
HOUSTON - "We can hang it on one person, or we can hang on ten, but what we better hang it on is that we've got a problem." - Cynthia Cole/community activist
"I believe the police chief should step down, at least from this investigation" - Randall Kalinin/civil rights lawyer
Pressure directed this week at Houston Police Chief Troy Finner by criminal justice activists.
It comes in the ongoing aftermath of the disturbing revelation that more than a quarter million criminal allegations over at least the last 8 years were administratively "culled" and never investigated.
24 hours later - as his investigative oversight panel began its work - Mayor John Whitmire very publicly went to bat for his embattled chief, on the issue of "what" Finner knew about the shelved cases and "when" he knew it.
Houston mayor defends Chief Troy Finner as case shelving probe continues
We also learned this week that the practice of abandoning particularly minor cases with no leads or evidence to follow - goes as far back as 2014 and likely further.