Houston is set to officially welcome its new police chief, J. Noe Diaz, a former Texas Ranger and most recently the chief of Katy's less than 100-person police department. Diaz is slated to start his new role on Aug. 14, pending confirmation by the City Council, and he's expected to be formally introduced on Friday at 11 a.m. His appointment comes during a tumultuous period for the Houston Police Department (HPD), which is currently grappling with a scandal involving over a quarter of a million suspended cases.
Mayor John Whitmire's selection has been framed as a move to bring fresh leadership to a force in need of direction. Diaz's career began in 1987 as a correctional officer and spanned various roles within the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Tony Leal, a retired chief of the Texas Rangers who worked alongside Diaz for two decades, voiced support for the choice, telling ABC13, "A leader is a leader. Whether it's a leader of many or a leader of few and I think that's what the department is looking for. That's what the mayor is looking for. Just like at DPS, every now and then, someone is brought in from the outside to put new eyes on something and I think that's what happening now."
Diaz's task will be to not only regain public trust following the revelation that HPD had suspended over 264,000 cases due to staffing shortages but also to manage a police force with a $1 billion budget and more than 6,000 staff members. The previous chief, Troy Finner, retired in the wake of the suspension scandal, and some, including Finner himself, believe he was pushed out as a scapegoat for the department's issues.
Meanwhile, Mayor Whitmire has promised an internal investigation to figure out just what went wrong with the suspended cases. Gregory Fremin, a retired HPD captain, highlighted the challenges that come with such a transition, explaining the "they want to bring an outsider in" strategy in a statement obtained by Houston Chronicle. According to Fremin, “The new chief will come in … and he’ll want to select, interview and promote an entirely new regime of command staff personnel. He’ll want to surround himself with people he knows and trusts.”
As the city waits to officially confirm Diaz, Acting Chief Larry Satterwhite is set to move into a new role as the director of the Mayor's Office of Public Safety and Homeland Security. The president of the Houston Police Officers' Union, Douglas Griffith, expressed optimism about the appointment of Diaz, saying to ABC13, "We believe we have good people inside, but sometimes, it takes someone from the outside to come in and shake things up and make us better."
