Honolulu Police Chief Joe Logan to step down under pressure

Associated Press

2 days ago

Honolulu Police Chief Joe Logan, who has led the department since 2022, is retiring at the end of the month, Mayor Rick Blangiardi announced on Monday.
Blangiardi said the retirement was a mutual agreement between Logan and the mayor for the good of the department.
The mayor recommended Big Island Chief Ben Moszkowicz to serve as interim chief in Honolulu effective July 16, though the decision will need to be made by the Honolulu Police Commission. Moszkowicz is a former Honolulu Police Department major.
Blangiardi said he has been having conversations with Logan about retirement for 'quite a while,' though he would not say exactly when they started discussing the topic. He said their conversations became 'very focused and pointed' last week. He called their last meeting Monday 'amicable.'
'Joe served us well for three years to the best of his ability,' Blangiardi said Monday during a press conference in his office. 'We had a lot of discussions. There were a lot of issues.'
Blangiardi refused to elaborate on those issues, though he cited ongoing high vacancies in the department and difficulty retaining experienced officers as some of his concerns.
The department had 457 officer vacancies of April 30. That's up from 324 sworn vacancies in 2021.
In the last year or so, the mayor has been openly critical of the chief as public safety concerns have increased, particularly violence on the Westside.
He has also criticized Logan for his department's lack of communication with the public and with his office.
The mayor was outspoken about his concerns after an island-wide manhunt ended in an officer-involved shooting on Jan. 1, 2024. A bystander who said he was beaten by officers later filed a lawsuit against the department. Blangiardi said he didn't learn about the beating until he read about it in the press.
'It's unacceptable to me in a very big way because it negates a lot of the effort we're making and what we're trying to do to build trust and confidence in our team,' he said during an episode of his podcast, One Oʻahu, in January 2024. 'They don't get to be a separate country. They don't get to make up their own rules.'
More recently, Blangiardi's staff has been drafting a proposal for the charter commission to put before voters in November 2026 that would switch the power to hire the chief to the mayor and away from the police commission.
Robert Cavaco, president of Hawaiʻi's police union, said in a statement that officer vacancies have grown by 42% over the last three years and the department has struggled with retention. There are currently 228 officers eligible for retirement.
'HPD has faced these challenges without a plan and without urgency for three years,' the statement said. 'We need bold and immediate action to turn the tide and the change in leadership provides us that opportunity.'
Big Island Mayor Kimo Alameda said Moszkowicz has made progress tackling the department's own staffing crisis, in part by starting a program aimed at getting high school seniors interested in police work. The program allows those who are between the ages of 18 and 21 to engage with the police force through ridealongs and other opportunities. Prospective officers can't graduate from the police academy until they are 21 because that is the legal age to carry a gun in Hawaiʻi.
The department has 68 officer vacancies of 484 sworn positions. That's down from 72 vacancies in November 2023. The department is in the process of hiring 28 officers, Alameda said.
'We've been filling those vacancies like nobody's business,' he said.
Moszkowicz has faced criticism from the Hawaiʻi Innocence Project for his department's handling of the investigation into a new suspect in the 1991 murder of Dana Ireland. Officers in July brought Albert Lauro in for questioning after he was determined to be the source of semen and other DNA retrieved from Ireland's body but failed to arrest him because Moszkowicz said they lacked probable cause to charge him with murder. Lauro killed himself shortly after he was released from police custody.
HPD's Had A Rocky Past
The Honolulu Police Department has been dogged by corruption and conflict for the last decade. In 2014, the FBI launched a yearslong investigation into then-chief Louis Kealoha that ended with Kealoha, his deputy prosecutor wife and several HPD officers convicted of corruption charges.
He was replaced by Susan Ballard, who lasted about three years before she resigned in the face of a negative job review by the Honolulu Police Commission.
It then took the commission a year to hire Logan who took the job in May 2022, and Blangiardi began to raise concerns about the commission's seeming inability to get a new chief in place.
Moszkowicz, who served 22 years with the Honolulu Police Department, was one of four finalists for the position at that time. But when he didn't get the job, he soon left for the post running the Hawaiʻi County Police Department. He was sworn in as chief in January 2023.
Logan, a former adjutant general who headed the Hawaiʻi Emergency Management Agency, was seen by the Honolulu Police Commission as a stabilizing force with deep roots in Hawaiʻi who could gain the trust of the rank-and-file officers and work well with the community. He had been an HPD officer earlier in his career before joining the military.
Police commission Chair Ken Silva said in a statement that violent crime on Oʻahu decreased under Logan's leadership, and the chief 'sought to bring stability to the department and always conducted himself with honesty and decency.'
He said nominations and self nominations are encouraged for anyone interested in the position of interim chief. Resumes and cover letters can be submitted to the commission.
'The search for a permanent chief will commence as soon as the Commission is able to do so,' the statement says.
Logan received good job reviews from the police commission although in 2024 the annual evaluation was clouded by a nearly simultaneous survey of police employees who raised serious concerns about leadership as well as other problems in the 2,800-employee agency.
And while Logan has enjoyed a smooth ride with the police commission, which has the power to hire and fire him, his relationship with Blangiardi has been rocky.
Blangiardi called the employee survey and the overwhelmingly positive police commission evaluation 'a disconnect.'
Logan has struggled to bolster staffing and recruitment since he took over. The department has faced increasing numbers of vacancies with hundreds of sworn-officer positions needing to be filled.
Moments before Blangiardi took advantage of the late-afternoon TV news shows to announce Logan's retirement live, the police chief emailed a press release saying he had decided to resign.
'Over the last three years, crime has gone down; and we have made significant progress in moving the HPD forward,' Logan said in the statement. 'This would not be possible without the hard work, commitment, and creativity of our officers and civilian employees. Your dedication to serving and protecting the people of O'ahu is inspiring and unequaled.
'And so, it is with a heavy heart and to avoid distracting from the HPD's important work, I will be retiring at the end of this month.'
Logan noted that leading a large police department is 'tough and demanding, and requires constant balancing of competing needs and wants from all sectors of the community.'
Alameda said he was happy for Moszkowicz, but that he will be missed on the Big Island if he's confirmed to serve as interim HPD chief.
'He's been very innovative,' he said. 'He's come up with some ideas that I think have benefited our department. He advocates for positions. I think he sees the big picture.'
The Honolulu Police Commission is scheduled to meet at 2 p.m. Wednesday. The public can attend in person at the police department's Beretania Street headquarters or can watch on a video livestream.
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This story was originally published by Honolulu Civil Beat and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.