Hawaii Policy Research Series · Island Security Policy Institute · 2026
AI public safety tools deployed in Hawaii are trained on data that underrepresents Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities. Without governance frameworks requiring calibration audits for island community contexts, these tools risk embedding and amplifying existing disparities in Hawaii's justice system.
Hawaii-specific examination of AI governance for public safety technology, documenting the calibration risks for Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities and providing an accountability framework for equitable AI deployment in Hawaii's public safety ecosystem. This research is produced under the ISPI Research Methodology Guide v4.0 — five pillars: government agency sources, regional organizations, OSINT/Bellingcat two-source verification, the ISPI Global Expert Panel of 78 members across 14 disciplines, and AI synthesis under practitioner review. All ISPI research is free under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.
Predictive policing tools deployed in Hawaii are trained predominantly on data from continental U.S. jurisdictions — calibration for Hawaii's specific demographic composition and crime pattern geography has not been independently audited
Facial recognition deployed by Hawaii law enforcement agencies has not been independently tested for accuracy across Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander demographic categories
Hawaii has no state-level AI governance framework requiring calibration audits for public safety AI tools deployed in communities with high Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander populations
Discipline 14 — Decolonizing Research — is mandatory for this domain. AI governance for indigenous and Pacific Islander communities is a SIDS-wide policy gap. Discipline 11 — Outside-the-Box — is applied: the second-order consequence of unaudited AI deployment in small island communities with high social density is accelerating community distrust of institutions.
Pulley, Warren. "AI Governance and Public Safety Technology in Hawaii." Island Security Policy Institute, 2026. https://ispiglobal.com/papers-landing/hi10-ai-governance-hawaii.html