LEWISTON — Brian O’Malley was tapped Thursday as the city’s police chief.

A swearing-in ceremony will be held Tuesday, Jan. 24, at City Hall.

O’Malley had been serving as interim chief since Michael Bussiere resigned last year to take an administrative post in a Dallas suburb.

O’Malley had served as his deputy chief.

The city conducted a national search for Bussiere’s replacement.

City Administrator Ed Barrett said O’Malley stood out from the crowd of candidates: “Brian O’Malley was the consensus choice of a diverse hiring panel that evaluated over twenty qualified applicants for the Lewiston chief’s position,” Barrett said in a written statement. “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.”

O’Malley is a 27-year veteran of the department and has held a variety of positions, including patrol officer, detective, patrol sergeant, sergeant of detectives in the Criminal Investigations Division and deputy chief.

He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree 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.

Before he departed for Texas last year, Bussiere voiced a strong vote of confidence in O’Malley. He reiterated those thoughts Thursday.

“Brian brings a wealth of law enforcement experience and institutional knowledge of the department and the city of Lewiston and I know he will excel at this new position,” Bussiere said. “I’m confident that Chief O’Malley and his staff will continue to focus on crime reduction and quality of life issues in the city while maintaining the public’s trust in the Police Department.”

O’Malley said Thursday of his appointment: “I am thankful for the confidence shown in me by the mayor, City Council and city administrator. I look forward to continuing to serve the city of Lewiston and leading what I consider to be the finest Police Department in the state of Maine.”

In the days to come, O’Malley said, he will focus on getting his officers trained to deal with a variety of issues they will face on the streets, including mental health, cultural differences and technology.

“We ask a whole lot of our officers day in and day out,” the chief said.

O’Malley will be tasked with guiding the department into an age that becomes more technology-oriented by the day: The majority of issues police deal with these days, O’Malley said, involve a cellphone in one way or another.

“And that technology is constantly changing,” O’Malley said.

Cloud-based systems and cruiser cameras are high on his list of priorities, as is the training necessary to manage the systems.

At the same time, the chief doesn’t plan to forget about low-tech problems and solutions. He plans to continue programs that have proven successful, such as neighborhood meetings and outreach programs.

And he’s aware that the problems of drug dealing, addiction and overdose continue and that more efforts will be required to combat them.

Active in the community, O’Malley has supported Special Olympics Maine for more than two decades and was inducted as a volunteer into the Special Olympics Hall of Fame. He has received numerous departmental commendations and citations and has received the Colonel Award from the Maine State Police, the New Hampshire Congressional Law Enforcement Award, and the Community Advocate Award from Androscoggin County Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Services.

“Brian’s dedication and professionalism have been demonstrated time and time again over the last 27 years,” Mayor Robert E. Macdonald said, “and I am very pleased that he will now be at the helm of the Lewiston Police Department.”

Barrett said O’Malley will be in charge of screening applicants for deputy police chief and making that pick. Lt. Adam Higgins is serving as interim deputy police chief.

Barrett said candidates from within the department will be considered first for deputy police chief. In fact, one of the criteria in the job description is experience at the Lewiston Police Department, he said. Only if there were no internal applicants or qualified applicants in-house would the search go outside of the department, Barrett said.