HOUSTON — As Houston Mayor John Whitmire announced Troy Finner's retirement in an email to HPD employees, he also announced who will act as chief in his place - Larry Satterwhite.
Satterwhite was previously serving the department as the executive assistant chief, overseeing patrol operations, according to HPD's Command Overview document that was published in February. In that role, Satterwhite served on "various internal committees that address organizational issues, as well as addressing community concerns expressed by citizens," according to the document.
He also oversaw various patrol region commands.
"This decision comes with full confidence in acting chief Satterwhite's abilities to lead and uphold the high standards of our department," Mayor Whitmire said in an email to HPD employees that was obtained by KHOU 11 News.
Acting Chief Satterwhite's first public appearance since Finner's retirement came on Wednesday as he spoke to a crowd for a National Police Week Day of Prayer event outside HPD headquarters. He told the crowd he relies on prayer in his own life and will be praying for the former chief, whom he considers a close friend.
"Our mission has not changed - our mission is to go out there and protect the citizens of Houston," he said. "That is our job - protection of life, protection of the quality of life - that will not change.
At Wednesday's Houston City Council meeting, the mayor said Satterwhite has been with the department for 34 years. He said Satterwhite already served as acting chief whenever Finner was out of town.
"I know the department and Houstonians are in good keeping," Whitmire said.
Watch the mayor's full comments at City Council:
The news 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.
It also follows months of scrutiny over the mishandling of thousands of cases that were marked with the code.
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 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: 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