HOUSTON — KHOU 11 is getting new reaction to the sudden retirement of HPD Chief Troy Finner who stepped down amid the scandal involving suspended incident reports.
Newly appointed acting Chief Larry Satterwhite answered tough questions on his first day on the job about his history with the controversial code.
The acting chief has stepped into a mess that he will be tasked with cleaning up.
Former HPD Chief Art Acevedo also weighed in on the situation.
“I think it’s a sad day for the City of Houston and for the men and women of the Houston Police Department,” Acevedo said in a phone interview Wednesday.
Acevedo did not hold back his feelings about Finner's retirement.
“There are certain folks that have wanted to get rid of Chief Finner,” Acevedo said. “Last night, those folks got their way. I think that Mayor (John) Whitmire is trying his best but he’s got a lot of special interests coming at him.”
Finner’s abrupt retirement was announced late Tuesday night following the release of an email from 2018. In the email, which included Finner and Acevedo, there’s mention of the now familiar code: “Suspended – Lack of Personnel.”
Finner previously said he didn’t know about the code until 2021. Mayor John Whitmire said the email was the last straw in Finner's handling of the scandal.
Whitmire also says it’s proof Acevedo knew about the code several years ago as well. It's something Acevedo vehemently denies.
“It’s a disappointment because I know John very well and I can see that maybe he thinks that tells you about that email,” Acevedo said. “But unless you have some type of magical mental powers, he recognizes that when he sees that, because he knows that a code exists. I however did not.”
At Wednesday’s press conference with Satterwhite, who’s been with HPD for 34 years, KHOU 11 asked him what he knew about the code.
“So, prior to that meeting, you had never heard of that code before, you never knew it was being used ever,” KHOU 11 reporter Matt Dougherty asked.
“I have no knowledge of knowing anything about that,” Satterwhite said. “I don’t do investigations. I haven’t done investigations since the early 90s when I might have done a couple of robbery investigations.”
On Wednesday, Whitmire also criticized members of the police force who may have known about the code, and the more than 260,000 times it was used, for not coming forward.
“So earlier today, the mayor said basically that it blew his mind that the SL code had been used as many times as it was over so many years, and nobody blew the whistle, and nobody came forward. Do you agree with that?” Dougherty said.
“Yeah, I just, we’ve always been challenged with personnel, and it’s been reported often that these were things that were brought public years ago,” Satterwhite said. “So, we’ve been short, but to do this with violent crimes is still hard to wrap my head around.”
Whitmire said Wednesday it was too soon to tell if he would be looking for a candidate for the chief’s position internally or externally. Sources with KHOU 11’s sister station, WFAA in Dallas, say the City of Houston is actively showing interest in Dallas Police Department Chief Eddie Garcia.