White Paper Series · Island Security Policy Institute · 2026
AI public safety systems trained on mainland U.S. data are deployed in Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, and island communities representing less than 0.5% of that training data. The calibration gap produces measurably disparate outcomes. No governance framework currently addresses this at the regional level.
Examines the deployment of AI public safety technology in island and Pacific Islander communities, documenting the calibration gaps from mainland-trained systems and providing an accountability framework for equitable AI deployment in SIDS contexts. 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.
Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities represent less than 0.5% of the training data for most public safety AI systems deployed in Hawaii
Facial recognition systems trained predominantly on continental U.S. data produce higher false positive rates for Pacific Islander and Native Hawaiian individuals
No regional AI governance framework exists for Pacific Island governments evaluating public safety technology procurement — ISPI documents the framework gap and provides the accountability standard
Pacific Island governments implementing AI public safety technology face identical calibration risks with even smaller community representation in training data. Discipline 14 — Decolonizing Research — is mandatory for all research in this domain.
Pulley, Warren. "AI Governance and Public Safety Technology in Island Communities." Island Security Policy Institute, 2026. https://ispiglobal.com/papers-landing/wp11-ai-governance.html