Houston’s police chief is suddenly retiring after questions were raised about more than 260,000 suspended investigations

Houston’s police chief unexpectedly retired from the force Tuesday night amid questions about a department policy that allowed the dismissal of hundreds of thousands of cases, including sexual abuse cases, according to the mayor’s office.

Troy Finner has served as chief of the Houston Police Department since 2021, capping a 34-year career with the department.

“I consider Troy Finner a friend. “It was difficult to accept his resignation, but it was in the best interest of Houstonians,” said Houston Mayor John Whitmire said in an impromptu press conference on Wednesday.

The resignation announcement came hours after Finner indicated in an internal email to CNN affiliate KHOU that an investigation had been closed due to “staffing shortages” in 2018, three years before he said he was aware of the policy consciously.

At the time the email was written, Finner was deputy chief for patrol operations.

At a news conference in February, Finner said he didn’t know about the practice until 2021, the year he became chief, when he ordered the department’s special victims unit to stop using the “staffing shortage” code for suspending investigations to use.

Finner said in April that police had made progress in reviewing some 264,000 investigations that had been closed since 2016 simply because of a lack of staff. More than 4,000 of these cases involved allegations of sexual crimes against adults. An independent review board is also investigating.

In one opinion Finner said Tuesday night after the KHOU report aired, “I have always been honest and have never set out to mislead anyone about anything, including this investigation.”

The outgoing chief said he was unaware of the “relieved staffing shortage” codes used by the Houston Police Department at the time, although it was mentioned in the email.

In his statement, Finner promised he would “reach out to the media and the public” once the investigation was complete. The mayor informed the city council of Finner’s resignation later that night.

Larry Satterwhite was named acting police chief by Whitmire on Wednesday. Satterwhite served as executive vice president under Finner. The mayor would not say whether he had asked for Finner’s resignation.

“It impacted operations at HPD. That’s the bottom line,” Whitmire told reporters Wednesday. “I dealt with it because it distracted from the mission of the men and women in HPD.”

Finner did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNN.

As of Wednesday afternoon, the police department had not officially announced the leadership change.

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