Our Responsibility to Our Community
How a Honolulu hemp business supports community safety by voluntarily cooperating with HPD, providing surveillance footage to help solve crimes and protect local residents in Waikīkī and across Hawaiʻ
When Honolulu Police officers come by asking for our security footage, it’s never really an alarming thing to us considering how often it happens. It’s usually about something that happened nearby—oftentimes something negative that affected the streets we all share. The details are rarely explained, and to be honest they really don’t need to be. What they’re looking for is a record of a moment in time that might help them do their jobs and solve whatever issue they’re working on.
Every time they ask, we say yes.
Over the years, HPD has requested footage connected to a range of incidents, from thefts, vehicle offenses, even to violent encounters. I don’t ask questions, and I don’t hesitate. If we have something that can help establish what happened or who was involved, it gets turned over promptly. Not because we’re required to, and not because we expect anything in return—but because it’s the honest to God right thing to do.
Our businesses operate in public spaces, surrounded by residents, workers, and visitors. Being part of that environment comes with a responsibility that goes beyond selling a product. It means recognizing that we’re part of a living community, one where what happens on the street matters to real people. When someone is hurt, threatened, or victimized nearby, we’re in a position to help clarify what happened and be the helping hand of justice. Withholding that help would be indefensible and detrimental to the health and wellbeing of our people and environment. Cleaning the land goes beyond picking up garbage on the beach. It also includes removing the criminals and bad actors. If we can help clean in that way too, we’re more than happy to.
Cooperating with law enforcement has never felt complicated to me. There’s no upside to obstruction, and there’s no virtue in indifference. If you care about the place you operate in—if you care about the people who live and work there—you show up, be attentive, and provide when you’re needed to contribute. I don’t know how each investigation ends. I don’t know whether the footage leads to arrests or answers. That’s not my role. My role is simply to make sure that if a piece of the puzzle passed through our field of view, it’s available to the people tasked with putting that puzzle together.
I came to Hawaiʻi to build something, but also to be part of something. That means more than paying taxes or employing people. It means acting like a neighbor. It means understanding that community safety isn’t someone else’s problem to solve alone.
Providing footage takes little effort, but it reflects something larger: a belief that participation matters. That caring about Hawaiʻi means helping when you can, without conditions or calculation. The door stays open. The cooperation is automatic. And it will remain that way.
Because if you claim to care about this place and its people, you don’t look away when you’re in a position to help.
Lance Alyas
Oahu Dispensary and Provisions