Massachusetts is closing in on a hire for the top job in the State Police.

“The Search Committee has completed its initial review of applicants, and interviews with the most qualified candidates are currently underway,” Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and Security spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll confirmed to the Herald.

Driscoll said that she couldn’t confirm the names of the final candidates due to “confidentiality reasons.” She also declined to disclose the number of candidates.

The Gov. Maura Healey administration had issued a deadline of Sept. 24, 2023, for prospects to apply for the job which pays $275,000 to $300,000 per year, according to the job posting at the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) website.

The Massachusetts State Police has been under the leadership of interim Col. John Mawn for more than a year. He took office on Feb. 17, 2023, following the retirement of Col. Christopher Mason, who served 40 years in law enforcement.

An MSP-affiliated source said that Mawn is well-regarded among the MSP rank and file as well as the State Police union. It is unknown if Mawn made the shortlist of final candidates. Since Mawn has served as the MSP’s top cop for more than a year, his pension benefits have been elevated to the top level, based on previous Herald reporting.

Mawn, who joined the MSP in 1993, previously served as a lieutenant colonel in charge of the agency’s Division of Investigative Services, which handles investigations into complex and violent crime, according to the biography issued by the Gov. Maura Healey administration upon Mawn’s appointment.

The state police reform bill signed into law by then-Gov. Charlie Baker on the last day of 2020 threw out the former requirement that the head of the State Police must be hired from inside the agency.

That means that Healey will be the first governor to possibly appoint an outsider to lead the agency that has in recent years been troubled by scandals. And she has said that option is very much on the table, as long as that person has “integrity and managerial competence.”

“My job — my responsibility — is to get the best colonel in place, and that person may well come from outside the State Police, they may come from within the State Police,” she said on WBUR’s Radio Boston on Feb. 15, 2023.

“The legislation now allows me, as governor, to make an appointment that is not limited to someone within the ranks,” she continued. “I’m just focused on getting the right person for that job.”

The job, per the governing state law, requires at least a decade of experience as a full-time sworn law enforcement officer, five to seven years of experience as a senior administrative position in a police force or military body, a bachelor’s degree and a laundry list of soft skills needed to accomplish MSP goals.

Those soft skills include developing strategies for the “department’s continuous improvement,” “increasing diversity … especially in the higher ranks,” “increasing community engagement,” “building morale,” and “strengthening relationships and cooperation with other law enforcement agencies.”