{"id":1286,"date":"2026-06-13T04:13:53","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T04:13:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hawaiimovinginsider.com\/?p=1286"},"modified":"2026-06-13T04:13:53","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T04:13:53","slug":"maui-council-approves-1-7m-in-ai-surveillance-tools-for-police","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hawaiimovinginsider.com\/?p=1286","title":{"rendered":"Maui Council approves $1.7M in AI surveillance tools for police"},"content":{"rendered":"
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HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Maui police have won approval for a $1.7 million expansion of high-tech policing tools that will include cameras and drones assisted by artificial intelligence, but the plan is raising concerns among civil rights advocates.<\/p>\n

Read more New list spotlights Hawaii\u2019s friendliest small towns<\/a><\/p>\n

Maui Police Chief John Pelletier envisions cameras giving complete real-time coverage of Maui island, tied into private security systems and supported by multiple drones, using artificial intelligence to spot trouble.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur personnel can go back and they can look for past events, where there\u2019s a crime, they could be looking for things in real time so they can actually see things as they\u2019re occurring,\u201d Pelletier said.<\/p>\n

Response to Lahaina wildfire<\/h1>\n

The communication chaos that hampered response to the Lahaina wildfire has given Pelletier a stronger argument for deploying new technology. He said it would help in public emergencies as well as fighting crime, with all the information coming into a central real-time operations center.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThat\u2019s gonna have AI technology built in there that will search for anomalies. So smoke, coming from the mountain, will be an anomaly. There\u2019s different anomalies that will look for,\u201d Pelletier said.<\/p>\n

Drones provided by a company called Brinc would be part of the system. The company\u2019s marketing video shows the capability to respond minutes after a call and identify a license from a thousand feet, which could then be tracked on Maui\u2019s traffic cameras, all watched from the operations center.<\/p>\n

\u201cImagine you have a police chase, or you have something that\u2019s occurring. You can actually have the ability to monitor that in real time over the entire community,\u201d Pelletier said.<\/p>\n

Council approves funds<\/h1>\n

The council agreed to the $1.7 million cost after one member asked about drug dealing at a local park.<\/p>\n

Read more National blog ranks Hawaii small towns among friendliest in U.S.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s great about that is we can actually put the cameras in there we can see this occur in real time is a phenomenal assist for the officers,\u201d Pelletier said.<\/p>\n

Council member Tom Cook said the system would help tremendously and that people are asking for security and oversight for their children.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can utilize these things at high crime areas, such as the airports, different things like that, and so for the money that it costs, we will save money. We will save lives,\u201d Pelletier said.<\/p>\n

Civil rights concerns<\/h1>\n

\u201cI think there are several serious civil rights concerns with this new program,\u201d said Wookie Kim of the ACLU Hawaii.<\/p>\n

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The ACLU said widespread surveillance, especially tied into private businesses or homes, risks privacy and potential abuse. The addition of AI using data algorithms to identify criminal behavior is another issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese algorithms, right, it all depends on the data that they\u2019re fed to be trained on. A lot of that data is flawed, garbage in, garbage out,\u201d Kim said.<\/p>\n

Pelletier said the system would only be used for public safety and law enforcement and would operate under rules to protect civil rights. The ACLU said the public needs to know more about what those guardrails are.<\/p>\n

Read more Moana-inspired Disney\u00a0x ALOHA Collection launch makes waves at Ala Moana<\/a><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maui County Council approved $1.7 million for AI-assisted cameras and drones for police, but the plan is raising concerns among civil rights advocates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1285,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nMaui Council approves $1.7M in AI surveillance tools for police - Hawaii Moving Insider<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/hawaiimovinginsider.com\/?p=1286\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Maui Council approves $1.7M in AI surveillance tools for police - 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