The Honolulu Police Commission has picked Deputy Chief Rade K. Vanic to serve as interim chief, replacing outgoing Chief Joe Logan until a permanent chief is named.
Vanic was unanimously selected by the seven-member commission during a lengthy meeting on June 18, when they decided to follow the city charter and appoint the next highest ranking Honolulu Police Department (HPD) officer to serve as interim chief.
Previously, Vanic has served as interim chief when Susan Ballard retired in June 2021.
After his selection, Vanic told reporters that one issue he’ll focus on as interim chief is HPD's officer shortage, but said he doesn't just want to fill the department's some 450 vacant uniformed officer positions.
“We shouldn’t be focusing on the vacancies. We really should be focusing on our strength, because I could cut out all of the vacancy numbers tomorrow … but did I really just make our department stronger?” he said.
“It’s really focusing on how many officers we have out there right now and what we are doing with those officers, providing them with good equipment so that they can do their jobs better and more safely, using the money that we have for those vacant positions and utilizing it correctly.”
During Tuesday’s meeting, commission members heard five-minute pitches from eight candidates vying for the interim position — five were internal candidates from HPD, and three were external. Nearly all of the candidates, including current Hawaiʻi County Police Chief Ben Moszkowicz, expressed interest in applying for the permanent role.
Vanic expressed interest in being HPD's permanent chief, but was upfront with the commission when asked.
” I’m going to make a bold statement here and say it's a tough, tough job. I was fully prepared to say, coming into this meeting, that is something that I need to discuss with my family,” he said.
“But I'm going to make a commitment to you, the men and women of this department and the community, and say that if selected as the interim chief, I will … throw my name in the hat for the permanent position.”
The process to appoint Vanic as interim chief the second time was somewhat of a spectacle that began earlier this month when Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi announced that Logan would be retiring from his position.
He then publicly endorsed Moszkowicz to be the department's interim chief.
That prompted questions about Blangiardi overstepping his authority over who gets to lead the police department. Under the Honolulu City Charter, that power to hire and fire the police chief belongs to the commission.
Blangiardi's involvement has been noted by the commission, including during Wednesday’s meeting.
“We're in an awkward situation where somebody has been advanced as a favorite candidate by our mayor, who has demonstrated a capacity to theatrically oppose people, and that’s uncomfortable. So, the people who step forward, I really am grateful to it because if you end up being the pick, you could be in a position where you are in opposition to somebody who’s going to be vocal about that,” said commissioner Ann Botticelli.
At the same time, she expressed concern that selecting someone for the interim role might create an unfair advantage when it comes to finding a permanent replacement for Logan, and questioned the wisdom of putting the department through two leadership transitions.
The commission also stressed that it wanted to use its efforts to pick the next police chief as soon as possible.
The pool of candidates for the interim role will be used to select a new police chief, according to commissioners.
Meanwhile, Honolulu Police Chief Joe Logan's retirement date has been pushed back to Aug. 1. Due to accrued time off, his last day in office will be July 15.
Vanic starts as interim chief July 16.
