HONOLULU (KHON2) — The Honolulu Police Department is looking ahead to hiring a permanent leader now that an interim chief has been named by the police commission.
A consulting firm is expected to narrow down the list of candidates, but some question the time and money that will be put into it.
Deputy Chief Rade Vanic is the interim chief of HPD. He filled this position before when Susan Ballard retired in 2021, but filling the permanent position is usually done with assistance of a third-party consulting firm and questions are being raised about unnecessary spending.
“Any type of excessive expense that doesn’t equal a choice that we know will help the officers within the rank and file in our public, We need to avoid those decisions,” said Honolulu City Councilmember Andria Tupola. “Right now, the way we are with our budget, we can’t be wasting money on things that don’t work.”
The consultant is hired to help narrow down the field of candidates and the police commission selects the final choice — which can take six months to one year.
It took a while to find Honolulu’s last chief, Joe Logan, and Mayor Rick Blangiardi does not expect a repeat.
“We’re going to try to do this as quickly as possible. So whether there’s a consultant in there or not. I think the understanding is that we don’t want to have another year go by as they did in the last search,” Blangiardi said.
The police commission vice chair said that a consultant would help them be as professional, thorough and timely as possible but it is not yet set in stone.
“We’re strongly considering it. We have had, not had the final decision by the commission that we’re doing this, but we’re strongly considering,” said Vice Chair Laurie Foster. “They are much more experienced at it. We, the police commission, are not a full time job nor have any of us done this.”
Vanic will assume the interim role in the meantime and Blangiardi is confident in his ability to do just that — Blangiardi also has high hopes for the permanent position.
“Rade and I exchanged text last night, and I told him I respect, I will work with him and support him and looking forward to the road ahead,” he said. “I want somebody who’s really well versed in 21st century policing, especially as it relates to communications to the community, but this is a leadership job.”