The Kauaʻi Police Commission has picked its new chief of police, though the selection process has been criticized by the state’s police union.
At a meeting on Friday, the commission made a conditional offer to Rudy Tai, one of four finalists. Tai was born and raised on Oʻahu, but spent his 35-year police career with the San Diego Police Department, where he currently serves as deputy chief.
The Pearl City High School alum said he was hired as an SDPD officer after graduating from San Diego State University.
In his July cover letter to the commission, he wrote, “My dream was always to return home to the Hawaiian Islands and serve the people of Hawaii.”
Tai did not immediately respond to a request for comment on this story.
The other finalists included Robert Larson, a captain for the Reno Police Department, and Teresa Ewins, the former police chief in Lincoln, Nebraska.
The fourth was KPD Captain Roderick Green — the only finalist already working at the department. Green has 21 years of experience with the island’s police department.
The State of Hawaiʻi Organization of Police Officers was critical of the commission, primarily regarding its selection of the new chief.
“Today was not an exercise in good government or transparent public process. Today we saw a public body make one of the biggest public decisions the county makes without discussion, without debate and without explanation,” said Nicholas Schlapak, the president of SHOPO, in a statement to HPR. “This is a police department that needs a fresh start, and that fresh start was compromised by the very people who were supposed to provide it.”
SHOPO did background checks on the candidates using publicly available material and sent its findings to the commission. SHOPO accused the commission of “ignoring” the findings, which raised concerns about the candidates.
The union’s primary issue with Tai stems from his alleged handling of an SDPD officer he was supervising. The officer, Anthony Arevalos, was arrested in 2011 for soliciting a bribe from a woman during a routine traffic stop. Arevalos took her into a convenience store bathroom and said he wouldn’t cite her if she gave him her underwear.
For that and a series of similar attacks on women between 2009 and 2011, Arevalos was convicted of multiple felony counts of sexual assault and battery. But Arevalos’ sexual misconduct had reportedly been an issue since the 1990s, when Tai was his supervisor.
Arevalos allegedly flirted with and took explicit photos of a woman with mental disabilities in the back of his patrol car. Tai reportedly knew about it but didn’t document or pursue formal punishment at the time. Tai also later failed to disclose those incidents to investigators.
SHOPO’s report suggested Tai’s inaction may have allowed Arevalos’ behavior to continue.
SHOPO said the commission should be more transparent about candidate information and its selection of Tai.
“They owe the public an explanation as to whether they already obtained this information, and to answer in a straightforward way, what information they used to declare our concerns unreasonable and who provided this information,” the union said in its statement.
Former Kauaʻi chief Todd Raybuck retired earlier this year. This came after Raybuck received a three-day suspension for leaving his department-issued gun in an employee restroom in March 2024, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported. Also in 2024, Kauaʻi County agreed to pay $350,000 to settle a lawsuit accusing Raybuck of discrimination.
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