Dave Lazar will be the next Honolulu Police Chief.
After hundreds of hours of interviews, dozens of surveys, 41 candidates and six months of consulting, the Honolulu Police Commission voted Wednesday to appoint Lazar, formerly a 33-year veteran of the San Francisco Police Department to lead the Honolulu Police Department.
The commission overwhelmingly voted in support of Lazar over the other two finalists: five of the seven-person commission voted for Lazar — including chair Laurie Foster and vice chairs Jeannine Souki and Chris Magnus — while the remaining two, Blake Parsons and Gary Yabuta, voted for outgoing director of the state Department of Law Enforcement Mike Lambert.
Scott Ebner, former chief of the Glynn County Police Department in Georgia, received no votes.
Foster said after the vote that the commission listened to the preferences of the Honolulu community, which she said had overwhelmingly called for “modernization and transparency” within the department.
However, the preferences of HPD officers may have received less consideration. The State of Hawai‘i Organization of Police Officers reportedly surveyed HPD officers and found that nearly 90% preferred Lambert — who served with HPD for 21 years — while only 2% would pick Lazar.
“They’ll get to know me,” Lazar said Wednesday. “And I’m confident that we will get to know each other and we will work well together and we will all have the same thing in mind.”
Lazar met with members of HPD’s command staff immediately following the vote, and said that he hopes to get to know HPD’s frontline officers personally and become their strongest advocate in the coming months.
“I’m grateful that they have chosen a noble profession, by serving the community of Honolulu, and serving with aloha, and choosing this place, out of all places they could work, to be a police officer,” Lazar said.
Lazar said he intends to serve as chief as long as possible, despite having retired from SFPD last year — he previously told Aloha State Daily he thinks he has another 10 years left in him. And he reiterated that he wants to be the last HPD chief hired from outside the department.
Foster said the choice to hire from outside the department was itself a reflection of the need for change at HPD and that it’s “up to the community to embrace him.”
Foster and other commissioners described the lengthy process of selecting candidates, winnowing down a field of 41 applicants over the course of months through interviews with the commission, SHOPO, the mayor, business leaders, first responders and nonprofits.
Many commissioners, including Foster, said that any one of the three candidates could have made a good HPD chief.
Lambert and Ebner congratulated Lazar after the vote. As Lambert had previously announced he will leave the Department of Law Enforcement this year to rejoin HPD, Lazar acknowledged that he will be Lambert’s boss, in some capacity.
Lazar said he has gotten to know Lambert during the process and understands why he is so popular among HPD. He said he wants Lambert’s talents back at HPD, but couldn’t specify what role he would want him to take on.
Lazar also doesn’t know when he will start the job. While he said he wants to start in early June, Foster said Lazar will still undergo a deep third-party investigation for further vetting — “a deep dive, to find out everything about the candidate,” Foster said — as well as contract negotiations.
Until such time, Interim Chief Rade Vanic remains in charge at HPD.
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