Houston Police Chief Finner retires - What's Your Point?

"It's my responsibility to provide public safety for all Houstonians, the decision was made." Houston Mayor John Whitmire

HOUSTON - Mayor John Whitmire addressing what was pretty clearly the "forced retirement" of Houston Police Chief Troy Finner amid the ongoing department-wide scandal over more than a quarter million criminal allegations that were simply never investigated.

Whitmire appeared committed to keeping Finner at the helm "until" evidence emerged this week that the chief was aware cases were being abandoned without investigation, three years earlier than he'd very publicly reported.

Deeply liked and respected by most on city council, Finner's departure was genuinely painful...if not completely unexpected.

In explaining the hard call, Mayor Whitmire said assessing "culpability" for the decade of "case abandonment" was robbing the department of "focus" and distracting officers from their core mission of "crime fighting".

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Doug Griffith, president Houston Police Officers Union: "We are hoping to take a step forward and start moving away from the way we are doing things now and be honest with the public and get things worked out so we will have the confidence of the public again. "

Mayor John Whitmire: " HPOU will not play any primary role. It will be my decision." .. . . " I'm not ruling out internal or external chiefs. I want someone who is a crime fighter who appreciates the diversity of our city and just wants to fix things."

I do not believe interim Chief Satterwhite is in serious contention. I do believe inquiries have been made to Dallas Police Department Chief Eddie Garcia....and potentially, Daniel Comeaux, DEA "Special-Agent-in-Charge" for the Houston division and a former HPD officer.

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