Final 4 candidates to serve as Honolulu police chief are announced

Two current Honolulu police officers, a retired brigadier general and a former member of the New Jersey State Police are the final four candidates being considered to serve as the city’s 12th police chief.

Seven applicants finished a three-day assessment center at Hilton Hawaiian Village on Wednesday, and Honolulu police commissioners voted Thursday to accept the four highest-scoring candidates to move on to interviews and public forums.

Honolulu police Maj. Mike Lambert, head of the Honolulu Police Department’s Ke Kula Makai Training Division, and Maj. Ben Moszkowicz, who runs HPD’s Traffic Division, are the two internal applicants remaining. Lambert has been with HPD for 19 years, and Moszkowicz has been an officer for 21 years.

Retired Brig. Gen. Arthur “Joe” Logan, former adjunct general of the Hawaii National Guard, who currently works as a criminal investigator with the state Attorney General’s Office, is the third local finalist.

The fourth to advance is retired New Jersey State Police Lt. Col. Scott Ebner, who was recently one of five finalists for the job of chief of the Prescott Valley Police Department in Arizona.

“We would like to thank all of the applicants for their interest in leading one of the largest metropolitan police departments in the country,” said Honolulu Police Commission Chair Shannon Alivado. “We seek a leader for HPD who has demonstrated experience in meeting challenges with a level head and compassionate heart. One who possesses exceptional communication skills and is attuned to national trends in policing. We are seeking the highest degree of personal and professional integrity, moral character and personal stability.”

Starting Monday, the applicants participated in a simulated set of exercises designed to evaluate their professional competencies and see how they would respond in real time to situations that could arise as police chief.

PSI Services LLC, an out-of-state consultant contracted in December for $145,777 to conduct an “Examination and Assessment of Psychological Competency and Other Characteristics for the Selection of Chief of Police,” trained six assessors, three men and three women, two with law enforcement backgrounds, to evaluate the applicants’ performance.

The commissioners did not know the names or backgrounds of the applicants until Thursday’s meeting.

PSI worked to evaluate the finalists in eight areas: communication, decision making, interpersonal interactions, managing, accountability, partnering, team building and innovative thinking.

Each candidate completed three written exercises and three oral presentations.

The candidates were given 25 minutes to prepare for a mock news conference about a police situation that evolved overnight. They were also asked how, as chief, they would be accountable to fellow officers, the Police Commission, the community and the State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers.

The final oral presentation asked the candidates to come up with a six-month plan for improving recruitment and retention while adjusting to growing animosity directed at officers.

“You know what the problem is, you get plenty of time to prepare for it and you give your presentation,” said Joe Hinish, managing senior consultant for public-safety solutions at PSI, speaking to commissioners Thursday. “Whatever you want to say.”

Candidates were given two hours and 10 minutes to finish each of the three written exercises before they took questions about their work.

During the exercises, PSI’s assessors would intermittently interrupt the candidates and direct their efforts toward another task to simulate the reality of multiple daily responsibilities while running the largest law enforcement agency in Hawaii.

One of the questions asked them to explain how they would set up their disciplinary systems and explain how it worked in coordination with the department’s promotion system. The others dealt with handling homelessness and a surge of visitor arrivals as pandemic restrictions on travel end.

The chief applicants also completed self-evaluations for each exercise.

The public will hear from the four finalists during a live, televised forum Thursday on PBS Hawaii’s “Insight” program. Oral and written testimony from the public will be accepted before the 90-minute program, airing at 7:30 p.m. and also live­streamed. The forum will be hosted by Honolulu Star-­Advertiser “Spotlight Hawaii” host Yunji de Nies.

Commissioners will again accept written and oral testimony from the public before they deliberate and select the next chief, pending medical clearance, at their May 23 meeting.