- By Angela Cifone Oct 6, 2026
- Read full article: here
HAWAIʻI ISLAND, Hawaiʻi (Island News) -- The state now wants to install automated license plate readers on Hawaiʻi Island.
But the idea is already raising questions.
—The community is concerned that the police department would mine a lot of data on people who are law-abiding citizens, that their movements would be tracked, and we would keep that data, and then, of course, even worse, share that data with other entities,
said Reed Mahuna, chief of the Hawaii Police Department.
Chief Mahuna said he hears those concerns.
—Those concerns have to be addressed before I’m going to move forward as far as my department is concerned,
said Mahuna.
ACLU Hawaiʻi said there are four key questions about that data.
—People need to worry about — we need to think about who is collecting the data, how that data is being stored, how that data is being disposed of and who it’s being shared with,
said Mandy Fernandes, Policy Director at ACLU Hawaiʻi.
The Department of Law Enforcement said the goal is crime prevention.
—The Hawaii Island cameras are specifically going to be dealing with the problem of agricultural crime,
said Jared Redulla, Director of the Department of Law Enforcement.
He continued, “The entire purpose of it is to aid law enforcement in solving crime. It gives us a starting point.”
Redulla said this isn’t about tracking people.
“We’re not here to invade people’s privacy, and we’re definitely not here tracking people,” said Redulla.
The cameras capture license plate information.
“They go into a secure digital storage that only very specific department employees have access to. I don’t even have access to it,” said Redulla.
Access to that data is limited.
“The data remains in storage for about 90 days and then gets automatically destroyed,” said Redulla.
A local attorney said the information being collected is already public.
“We’re replacing that one police officer with a camera, so it’s taking down the exact same information: license plate number and registered owner,” said Megan Kau, a local lawyer.
But how the technology is used and handled still concerns some.
Hawaiʻi Island police said the community will get a say before the cameras go up.
“There won’t be any deployment of these cameras until such time as I have a community meeting, and I get out there in the community, explain what we’re doing, why we’re doing it,” said Mahuna.
And while those conversations can help, ACLU Hawaiʻi said it wants more permanent protections.
—The best way to do that is not just have piecemeal departmental policies, but actually putting it in statute. So, come January, the legislature needs to be introducing legislation around mass surveillance,
said Fernandes.