Honolulu Acting Police Chief Cary Okimoto announced Friday that he will retire at the end of the month, about the time a new chief is set to be named by the Honolulu Police Commission.

Okimoto was deputy chief in December when then-Chief Louis Kealoha placed himself on paid voluntary leave after federal officials told him that he was the target of a criminal investigation. The commission named Okimoto acting chief.

His “acting” title got extended by the commission when Kealoha retired at the end of February. Okimoto applied to be Kealoha’s permanent replacement but was not named one of nine semifinalists after an essay test graded by a panel of law enforcement experts.

In an email to HPD employees Friday, Okimoto praised them for their dedication to ensuring the public’s safety. “We are all about doing the right thing for the right reason,” he wrote.

Okimoto was appointed by Kealoha in October 2015 to be one of his two deputies. At the time, Okimoto was an assistant chief, a civil service post.

In June 2013 Okimoto was the major of HPD’s Waikiki patrol district (District 6) when Kealoha and his wife, Katherine Puana Kealoha, reported their mailbox stolen from the lawn of their Kahala home. The Waikiki patrol district’s Criminal Reduction Unit investigated the incident at the home, even though the address is in HPD’s East Honolulu district (District 7). Gerard Puana, Katherine Kealoha’s uncle, was arrested and went to trial for the theft, but the case ended in a mistrial. Puana accused the Kealohas of framing him in order to strengthen their legal position in an unrelated court matter involving Puana’s mother, who is also Katherine Kealoha’s grandmother.