The Honolulu Police Commission selected three finalists Wednesday to compete to be the city’s next chief: Hawai‘i Department of Law Enforcement Director Mike Lambert; Scott Ebner, police chief in Glynn County, Georgia; and David Lazar, retired assistant chief of the San Francisco Police Department.

The candidates “represent the strongest alignments with the needs of our community and the qualities we believe are essential for leading the Honolulu Police Department,” commission Chair Laurie Foster said when she announced the finalists’ names following a three-hour executive session.

Semifinalists Ben Moszkowicz, former chief of the Hawaiʻi County Police Department, and interim Honolulu Police Chief Rade Vanic, did not advance.

Ebner was a finalist for chief in 2022 when Joe Logan was ultimately chosen. He worked for the New Jersey State Police from 1995 to 2022, when he retired as a lieutenant colonel. He was appointed chief in Glynn County, Georgia, in June 2023.

Earlier this month, he was also named as a finalist for chief in Snoqualmie, a city in King County, Washington, according to local news website Living Snoqualmie.

In 2021, four female New Jersey state troopers sued Ebner alleging gender discrimination and a hostile work environment. The lawsuit claims he passed over a female trooper for promotions and made unauthorized inquiries into her sick leave balance.

Ebner has applied for police chief jobs across the country. After he was hired in Glynn County in 2023, The Current, a nonprofit newsroom in Georgia, reported he had been a finalist in Prescott Valley, Arizona; Aurora, Colorado; Kansas City, Missouri; and Santa Fe, New Mexico; in addition to Honolulu.

Between 2017 and 2023, four lawsuits filed against Ebner and other leaders at the New Jersey State Police accused them of workplace discrimination, according to The Current. One of the lawsuits was dismissed and Ebner was dropped as a defendant in a second. The 2021 lawsuit alleging gender discrimination is still pending. Ebner has denied the allegations.

Lazar retired as assistant chief of the San Francisco Police Department last year. He had served in that department since 1991. In November, he was a finalist for sheriff in San Mateo County, according to the local ABC News station. He told community members during a public meeting last November that his first priority would be to audit the sheriff’s department.

Lambert became director of the Hawai‘i Department of Law Enforcement last year after serving 21 years with the Honolulu Police Department. He announced in April he wanted to return to HPD after the Legislature failed to pass a bill that would have resolved a system issue affecting his retirement.

Because of the law, he needs to serve his final five years before retirement at HPD in order to receive the full benefits he’d accrued over his previous two decades of service. During his short tenure at DLE, Lambert ramped up enforcement of illegal fireworks and implemented new police surveillance technology, including drones. As a major at HPD, he worked in the Narcotics Vice Division and served on the city’s Gambling Rooms Task Force focusing on enforcement of illegal game rooms. 

‘New Direction’ For Department Needed

The finalists were named the day after four panels made up of government representatives, first responders, city council members and heads of community nonprofits and organizations interviewed the six semifinalists on Tuesday. 

The panelists were given a list of 10 questions selected by the commission to ask the candidates, said Liam Chinn, a public safety consultant who participated on the community panel. The questions included ones commissioners developed with the consulting firm Public Sector Search & Consulting, as well as a few submitted by panelists.

Chinn declined to share all 10 questions, citing the confidentiality of the process, but said the list included one submitted by him: “Describe how you would approach ensuring strong, consistent cooperation between the police department and a civilian police oversight body, such as a police commission, especially in situations where expectations are unclear or there is internal departmental resistance.”

Chinn said panelists also had the chance to ask additional questions if there was time remaining at the end of each interview. Some panelists asked about the candidates’ opinions on collaborating with ICE, a topic that was not on the official list of questions, he said. 

In the weeks leading up to the semifinalist interviews, dozens of community members testified before commissioners imploring them to select a chief who has said on the record they will not collaborate with federal immigration enforcement. The majority of community members who responded to an online survey about what they want to see in a chief said transparency and openness were top priorities. 

After six hours of interviews on Tuesday, the members of each panel shared their feedback with Police Commission members assigned to their group. The commissioners were split up between the panels. 

Chinn did not share specifics or details about the candidates. He said he was not ready to endorse any candidate for chief. 

“I think there were a small handful of candidates that could potentially move the department in a new direction, which is what is needed,” he said. “What I think is needed in a new chief is someone who’s willing to be innovative and to really address the ongoing problems, internal problems, in the department head on, and that requires innovation and a willingness to really step outside of the box.”

The department has not been able to recruit enough officers to keep pace with retirements and resignations since at least 2020. Former Chief Joe Logan stepped down last June under pressure from Mayor Rick Blangiardi’s administration after receiving criticism for how he handled communications with the mayor’s office and the public. He later sued Blangiardi, saying the mayor threatened him and forced him to quit. Blangiardi has denied the allegations. 

The prior chief, Susan Ballard, who served from 2017 to 2021, stepped down more than a year before her contract was set to expire after receiving a negative performance review from the police commission.  Commissioners criticized her leadership, said she shirked accountability and did not communicate clearly with her officers and the public. 

The chief before Ballard, Louis Kealoha, was embroiled in a far-reaching political scandal in which he and his wife, a prosecutor, framed a man for a crime he didn’t commit. Kealoha, his wife Katherine, and two police officers went to prison.

Blangiardi said in a statement that Wednesday marked “an important step forward in the process” to select Honolulu’s next chief.

“This is one of the most important leadership positions in our city,” he said. “The men and women of the Honolulu Police Department, and the people of Oʻahu, deserve a chief with integrity, strong leadership, sound judgment, and a deep commitment to public safety and community trust.”

The candidates will participate in a public forum on PBS Hawaiʻi “Insights” on May 14, and the commission will make its final selection on May 20.