For months, a police accountability group in Houston demanded that Police Chief Troy Finner resign after he revealed that thousands of cases, including those involving serious offenses such as sexual assault, were dropped over the years due to a lack of personnel.
On Wednesday, Mayor John Whitmire announced that Finner was retiring effective immediately — a move that stunned even his fiercest critics.
“I was relieved. The buck stopped with him,” said Hai Bui, founder of the activist group We the People Organize. “We’re very happy that the chief did the right thing.”
But community activists say Finner’s sudden departure, which caps a three-year tenure as police chief in the nation’s fourth-largest city, does not put to rest concerns over those dropped cases. Now, groups are calling for continued accountability.