David Lazar says he wants to boost officer pay and recruitment, expand the use of technology and develop a new strategic plan for the Honolulu Police Department’s future.

Lazar, selected by the Police Commission in May after retiring in 2025 as an assistant chief of operations with the San Francisco Police Department, takes over an HPD that’s faced hundreds of sworn officer vacancies, low morale and leadership instability in recent years.

During a recent City Council Public Safety Committee hearing, Lazar outlined his “top items” for addressing those challenges, saying the effort begins with “people first.”

“And what I mean by that is our people within the organization that do the job — keeping in mind their wellness, their resiliency — and then that translates to people first in the community and those that we serve,” Lazar said. “When we have a good, healthy, fully staffed workforce, it translates to us delivering excellent service to the community, and that is really my overarching thought on how to lead.”

The police chief also discussed recruitment and retention of sworn officers and professional staff at HPD.

“Thankfully, we have some really good trajectory right now that predates me,” Lazar said. “And credit goes to my predecessor who was able to get 66 recruits into the police academy a couple of months ago, which was a 12-year record of having such a large class.

“A couple of weeks after that we graduated 37 recruits, which was a seven-year record,” he added. “And then we’re on track (in October) to hire around the same amount of officers as we work to close the gap of 400” vacancies.

Lazar said that if those who have “already been in the police academy right now or field training” are included, the gap is really 275 positions.

“That’s 275 away from 2,177 full-strength officers within our city and within our department,” he said. “So we are working towards that.”

HPD, he added, is pursuing strategies to hire officers in 90 days, “which would be a record for hiring people.” And he noted HPD has staffed up those working on background checks and recruitment for potential police officers.

“We’re working with marketing now to market not only having local people come apply and be part of HPD but also on the state level and on the continent,” Lazar said, “making sure we’re advertising how great it is to come here and work here.”

As far as retention, the police chief said his team will work to improve HPD salaries, “and all of the things that people need.”

“Retention is about good leadership,” Lazar added. “Are your employees valued? Do they have a voice? Do we support them? It’s really trying to make HPD the greatest place to work, so we retain our employees.”

He also touched on modernizing the police department, including implementing crisis-intervention training to teach officers “how to deescalate, how to create time and distance, how to slow down on use of force.”

New technology will also play a part at HPD.

“I have really been promoting us building a real-time investigations center where we’re sending drones out — (the) drone is the first responder — getting to calls for service in a timely manner by using drones,” Lazar said.

The use of license plate readers will also be bolstered, he added.

“If your car is stolen you’d want us to recover it right away, because a license plate reader is up and able to register the plate,” Lazar said.

“So we’re building out our platform on technology,” he added, “and we have members in our department that are really taking the lead in this area.”

Lazar also noted that he wants HPD to build a strategic plan. “What is our vision for (HPD) over the next three to five years,” he said.

The Council will soon receive a draft copy of that strategic plan for its input. “And so we’re really excited for the Council’s feedback once we provide you with the draft and we’d like to hear your ideas as well as to what you envision the future of HPD being,” Lazar said.

During the Sept. 24 committee meeting, Vice Chair Andria Tupola asked when HPD will actually provide the strategic plan to the Council.

“Within one week we will send it to you so that you can see it,” Lazar replied. “And then give you maybe 10 days or so to look at it, provide your input and send it back to us.”

As chair of the Public Safety Committee, Council member Augie Tulba requested Lazar return for a possible presentation of HPD’s new strategic plan to the Council.

Tulba also asked the chief what are “the biggest challenges” that immediately impact HPD.

“The biggest challenge I’ve identified so far is really the pay that is provided to our members,” said Lazar. “And if you look at comparable sized departments including the one I’ve come from, the pay is just not the same for a similar-sized department.”

He added “pay is something I look forward to working with all of you on, and partnering with SHOPO, to try to draw people.”

Lazar noted that he recently learned HPD had not submitted a formal organizational chart to the city Department of Human Resources since 2012. “And so DHR has been working off an old organizational chart,” he said. “So the challenges I have aren’t really big challenges but they are necessary and there are a whole lot of them, and you’ll see them in the strategic plan.”

No one from the public testified at the meeting.

But some of the new policies — including the use of drones — don’t sit right with everyone. That includes the American Civil Liberties Union, which opposes police drone use nationally.

Salmah Y. Rizvi, executive director of the ACLU of Hawaii, previously told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that opposition includes HPD’s Drone as First Responder program.

“Facial recognition, which can be integrated with drone systems, has a record of misidentifying Black, brown, and Asian faces at dramatically higher rates than white faces. The communities HPD is targeting first ( Kalihi, Chinatown, Kakaako) are disproportionately communities of color,” she said previously. “Deploying aerial surveillance over them without a warrant requirement, independent oversight, or binding data retention limits is not pono.”

Lazar took the reins of HPD following former Chief Joe Logan’s contentious departure in July 2025, which included Logan filing a lawsuit against the city alleging wrongful termination and emotional distress.

That complaint, which initially named Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi as a defendant but was later dismissed from the case by a judge, remains active.

Former Assistant Chief Rade Vanic served as interim chief during the transition until Lazar’s selection.

In August, Lazar put his stamp on his newly adopted police department by formally promoting Brandon Nakasato, a nearly 27-year HPD veteran, to oversee the department’s field operations and serve as the second-in-command acting chief, when warranted.

Maj. Parker Bode, who has 16 years with the department, was also chosen to lead HPD’s administrative operations.

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