Who will be the next HPD chief? Here are names already rumored

Whitmire on May 8 said he wasn’t ruling out an “internal or external chief,” and that he plans to use his own personal network to find candidates and lead the search himself.

Here are some of the names that have been floated as potential people to be the next Houston chief.

Garcia, the chief of the Dallas Police Department, emerged as a rumored candidate for the Houston job less than a day after Finner’s departure.

Dallas TV station WFAA reported that Houston and Austin was “showing interest in potentially hiring” Garcia, who’s been in his position since 2021. Garcia is an at-will employee and can leave at any time, the station reported. 

In response to the rumors, Dallas’ city manager released a statement saying he and the city council “want to keep him in Dallas doing a good job”

“To the cities shopping in Dallas for a new chief, I have one message for you: ‘turn around and go back home,'” interim Dallas City Manager Kim Tolbert said.

In response to the rumors about Houston’s interest in Garcia, Whitmire’s office said it was “too soon to discuss the next steps in finding a new police chief.”

Acevedo was Houston’s police chief from 2016 until 2021. Previously the leader of the Austin Police Department, he left Houston to become the chief in Miami. His time in Florida last just 7 months.

On leaving Colorado, Acevedo was set to become an interim assistant city manager in Austin, with oversight of the police department. Just days after he was offered that job however, Acevedo announced he wouldn’t take the jobs and said he didn’t want to be a “distraction” in the city.

Mayor John Whitmire is a longtime friend of Acevedo, but after the false start in Austin, a senior City Hall official told the Chronicle there were no “imminent plans” to ask him to return to Houston.

A 34-year veteran of the department, Satterwhite came up as a patrol officer, SWAT team member, and special operations commander, before being appointed as executive assistant chief of field operations in 2021 by Finner. In that position, Satterwhite supervised some 3,000 HPD employees who work in the department’s patrol divisions. As executive assistant chief, he reported directly to Finner.

During a introductory press conference, Satterwhite said it would be “great” to be named the permanent chief, but speculated there might be interest among city leaders to hire someone from outside the scandal-laden department.