LEWISTON — Brian O’Malley is officially the city’s new police chief.

At a swearing-in ceremony Tuesday at City Hall, City Administrator Ed Barrett said an eight-member hiring committee had fielded 22 applicants from across the country for the position. 

“The consensus was that we had the best candidate right here in our current department,” Barrett said during the ceremony. 

O’Malley, a 27-year veteran of the department, had been serving as interim chief since Michael Bussiere resigned last year to take an administrative post in a Dallas suburb.

O’Malley had previously served as Bussiere’s deputy chief.

He was sworn in Tuesday by City Clerk Kathy Montejo, standing alongside 10 other members of the Police Department’s command staff and honor guard. Other officers, retired officers and city officials also attended the ceremony. 

Barrett said O’Malley started as a patrol officer in 1990, becoming detective in 1997. Since then, he’s been patrol sergeant, sergeant of detectives in the Criminal Investigations Division and deputy chief. 

“It became very clear that Brian knows the department and its personnel, and has played a role over the years in the department’s success,” Barrett said.

That success includes a drop in the crime rate, and other successes that are hard to match around the country, he said, adding that O’Malley also has a vast knowledge of and commitment to the community.

Barrett told a story about O’Malley, during his first year in the department, when he told his former boss his future goal: “I want your job.”

“I had no idea that 27 years later that would come true,” O’Malley said. 

O’Malley, who said he was suffering from a cold Tuesday, kept his comments short.

“We have a good thing going here in Lewiston,” he said. “We have made some strides in community policing, but we obviously have some issues that are coming to the forefront, and we want to make sure we get ahead of those.”  

He thanked his wife, family and the hiring committee for putting their confidence in him.

Barrett announced the decision Jan. 19, saying, “Brian O’Malley was the consensus choice of a diverse hiring panel that evaluated over 20 qualified applicants for the Lewiston chief’s position. Through that process, it became clear that he is strongly committed — not only to continuing and building upon the success the department has achieved, but to the community that it serves. I look forward to working closely with Brian as he takes up this new challenge.”

In the Jan. 19 press release, the appointment of O’Malley also received support from Mayor Robert Macdonald, who said he was pleased to have O’Malley at the helm. 

O’Malley has been active in the community, supporting Special Olympics Maine for more than two decades. He has received numerous departmental commendations and citations and has received the Colonel Award from Maine State Police. 

He has a Bachelor of Arts in political science from Providence College and attended the Command Training Program at Roger Williams University. He has advanced training certifications in Crisis Negotiation and Practical Homicide Investigations and is a certified civil rights officer.

The swearing-in ceremony was originally scheduled for Jan. 24, but was postponed because of bad weather.