Houston police chief replaced amid investigation into hundreds of thousands of dropped cases

Houston's police chief was replaced amid an ongoing investigation into more than 264,000 cases that were never investigated due to lack of available personnel.

During a news conference, Whitmire said the ongoing investigation and questions of what Finner knew and when were having a cumulative impact "on the morale in the department, the focus of the officers and the confidence that Houstonians need to have in their police department."

Whitmire, who took office in January, had expressed confidence in Finner after the chief revealed in February that more than 264,000 incident reports in the past eight years were never submitted for investigation as officers assigned them an internal code that cited a lack of available personnel.