HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — Mayor John Whitmire has named a new chief for the Houston Police Department Thursday.
Former Texas Ranger and Katy Police Chief Noe Diaz is expected to become the department’s new head on Aug. 14 after being confirmed by City Council.
Diaz will be formally introduced on Friday at 11 a.m.
Diaz’s career in law enforcement began in 1987 as a correctional officer with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. In 1994, he graduated from the University of Houston-Downtown Police Academy and joined the Harris County Constable Precinct Five Office. In 1996, the Texas Department of Public Safety selected him to attend the DPS Academy A-96. He served as a trooper at the Katy Highway Patrol, and in 2001, he was promoted to the Narcotics Division of the State Police stationed in Houston. In 2008, he was appointed as a Texas Ranger, where he served in Rio Grande City but then returned to Houston.
With the new top cop named, Whitmire also announced that Acting Police Chief Larry Satterwhite will also take a new assignment as the next director of the mayor’s office of public safety and homeland security. Satterwhite will start his new role on Aug. 14.
“Larry has been an outstanding leader in law enforcement, demonstrating unwavering dedication and commitment to the safety and well-being of Houstonians,” Whitmire said in a letter to council members.
The announcement comes a day after HPD released a report on the 264,000 cases suspended due to inadequate staffing. More than a quarter of a million cases filed by crime victims since 2016 were labeled with a “Suspended – Lack of Personnel” code.
Whitmire said there would be an internal investigation into what went wrong, and on Wednesday, Satterwhite presented the report to the Houston City Council.
The 41-page report found that investigators were using this “SL code” as they were told. And there weren’t guidelines on how to use it based on certain crimes.
READ MORE: Houston Police Department releases long-awaited report on suspended cases scandal
The fallout has been tremendous over the past six months. Whitmire accepted the retirement of Troy Finner in May, and the now-former Houston Police Chief recently said he believes he was pushed out to bury the scandal.
“I’m proud to take the blows. But tell the whole story,” Finner told ABC13’s partners at the Houston Chronicle.
Finner previously claimed he first heard of the code on Nov. 4, 2021, and ordered his leaders to never use it again.
However, a 2018 email obtained by 13 Investigates shows Finner knew of the coding being used at least once, meaning he was aware of it three years earlier than he had previously claimed.
The July 20, 2018, email was addressed to several high-ranking HPD leaders, including then-Chief Art Acevedo and Finner, who was an executive assistant chief at the time.
Satterwhite took over after Finner left, but there were many questions about who was going to lead the department permanently going forward.
