On Monday morning, state law enforcement and the Honolulu Police Department released the latest numbers for the New Year’s Eve celebrations.
Assistant Chief Brian Lynch joined The Conversation live to talk about the efforts to keep the public safe, reduce the number of people hurt or killed by illegal fireworks, and avoid scenes like the one that unfolded in an Oʻahu neighborhood just a year ago.
Interview highlights
On how this year's New Year's Eve differed from previous years
BRIAN LYNCH: We have been working with DLE (Department of Law Enforcement) the entire year on other things, as well as fireworks. For New Year's in particular, we did several operations. DLE went out with drones. We had teams strategically going through the island doing enforcement. The actual numbers will come out in the press release that we're going to do after this phone call. I can tell you, for us as HPD, last year we had two citations. In this current year, we had 29 citations. Enforcement has stepped up. I think it's worth mentioning that the community really came forward and made a huge difference. I think a lot of people can say that it was a lot quieter this New Year's as compared to prior New Year's, and then the time period that people actually use fireworks was pretty consistent with the time period that the permits were designated for. So kudos to the community for really coming forward and participating in wanting to make a difference for all of us together.
On arrests and injuries on New Year's Eve
LYNCH: It was a busy night. Overall, we had 121 arrests islandwide. That wasn't for fireworks, but that was just the total of other stuff going on. The world doesn't wait for us. Things happen, and we have to respond to everything, not only fireworks. However, we were able to traverse that mission and be able to do that efficiently, and fortunately, none of our officers got hurt. Everybody made it home. And there were some injuries to the community that we would rather avoid, but it was unfortunate; there were some, but we were able to go and document those. Those investigations are pending right now. So all in all, I think it was, it was a better New Year as compared to last year.
On the community changing habits
LYNCH: This goes back to a common theme, whether it's driving habits or fireworks. As an island community, we really need to band together to work towards a safer community for all of us, because it's just an island. We all live here together. If we don't make that effort to respect each other and follow the rules and the laws, we're going to keep running into these unfortunate accidents. Why do we have to have these accidents? It really doesn't have to happen that way, if we slow down, if we think about common respect for our fellow citizens here on the island, that respect will lead us in a better direction, versus all of this stuff that's happening with fireworks and even with traffic fatalities. I mean, it's unfortunate; we really need to make a change.
This story aired on The Conversation on Jan. 5, 2026. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Hannah Kaʻiulani Coburn adapted this interview for the web.
