Former HPD Chief Finner claims city trying to bury investigation into suspended cases, Chron reports

Thursday, July 25, 2024
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- The City of Houston is expected to release a report into the Houston Police Department's suspended cases sometime next week. Mayor John Whitmire said the findings will be presented to the city council.

Since retiring from the force, former HPD Chief Troy Finner has strayed from the spotlight - until recently. On Monday, our partners at the Houston Chronicle published an interview with Finner, who said he was worried the city was trying to bury the investigation.

"This failure is gonna come back and bite us," Finner told the Chronicle. "And that's what I was trying to prevent."

Finner retired several weeks after he went public about what was going on. In total, 264,000 cases have been suspended since 2016 because the department said there was not enough personnel to investigate them.

In a statement, Whitmire said he was disappointed that Finner suggested the city was trying to sweep this under the rug. However, a former HPD captain appeared to share the same thought as Finner, telling the Chronicle, "You don't hear anything about it coming out of city hall. It's being delayed longer because the longer they sit on this time, people are (going to) forget about it."

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