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Tuesday 6 december 2022
U.S. police rarely deploy deadly robots to confront suspects

any weaponized robots or
drones, said SWAT Lt. Ru-
ben Lopez. He declined to
detail why his department
did not seek permission for
armed robots, but con-
firmed they would need
authorization to deploy
one.
“It’s a violent world, so we’ll
cross that bridge when we
come to it,” he said.
There are often better op-
tions than robots if lethal
force is needed, because
bombs can create collat-
eral damage to buildings
and people, said Lomax,
the former head of the tac-
tical officers group. “For a
lot of departments, espe-
cially in populated cities,
those factors are going to
add too much risk,” he said.
Last year, the New York Po-
lice Department returned a
leased robotic dog sooner
A police officer uses a robot to investigate a bomb threat in San Francisco, on July 25, 2008. than expected after public
Associated Press backlash, indicating that
Continued from Front San Francisco “just hap- max, former executive di- Aaron Peskin first proposed civilians are not yet com-
pened to be the city that rector of the National Tac- prohibiting police from us- fortable with the idea of
Largely, experts say, the tackled a topic that I cer- tical Officers Association. ing robot force against any machines chasing down
use of such robots remains tainly didn’t contemplate “But since then, I had not person. But the department humans.
rare even as the technol- when the law was going heard a lot about that plat- said while it would not out- Police in Maine have used
ogy advances. through the process, and form being used to neutral- fit robots with firearms, it robots at least twice to de-
Michael White, a professor that dealt with the subject ize suspects ... until the San wanted the option to at- liver explosives meant to
in the School of Criminology of so-called killer robots,” Francisco policy was in the tach explosives to breach take down walls or doors
and Criminal Justice at Ari- said Chiu, now the city at- news.” barricades or disorient a and bring an end to stand-
zona State University, said torney. The question of potentially suspect. offs. In June 2018, in the tiny
even if robotics companies In 2013, police maintained lethal robots has not yet The approved policy al- town of Dixmont, Maine,
present deadlier options their distance and used a cropped up in public dis- lows only a limited number police had intended to use
at tradeshows, it doesn’t robot to lift a tarp as part course in California as more of high-ranking officers to a robot to deliver a small
mean police departments of a manhunt for the Bos- than 500 police and sheriffs authorize use of robots as explosive that would knock
will buy them. White said ton Marathon bombing departments seek approv- a deadly force — and only down an exterior wall, but
companies made special- suspect, finding him hiding al for their military-grade when lives are at stake and instead collapsed the roof
ized claymores to end bar- underneath it. Three years weapons use policy under after exhausting alterna- of the house.
ricades and scrambled to later, Dallas police officials the new state law. Oakland tive force or de-escalation The man inside was shot
equip body-worn cameras sent a bomb disposal robot police abandoned the tactics, or concluding they twice after the explosion,
with facial recognition soft- packed with explosives into idea of arming robots with would not be able to sub- survived and pleaded no
ware, but departments an alcove of El Centro Col- shotguns after public back- due the suspect through contest to reckless conduct
didn’t want them. lege to end an hours-long lash, but will outfit them alternate means. with a firearm. The state lat-
“Because communities standoff with sniper Micah with pepper spray. San Francisco police say er settled his lawsuit against
didn’t support that level of Xavier Johnson, who had Many of the use policies al- the dozen functioning the police challenging that
surveillance. It’s hard to say opened fire on officers as a ready approved are vague ground robots the depart- they had used the explo-
what will happen in the fu- protest against police bru- as to armed robots, and ment already has have sives improperly.
ture, but I think weaponized tality was ending. some departments may never been used to deliver In April 2020, Maine police
robots very well could be Police detonated the ex- presume they have implicit an explosive device, but used a small charge to blow
the next thing that depart- plosives, becoming the permission to deploy them, are used to assess bombs a door off of a home during
ments don’t want because first department to use a said John Lindsay-Poland, or provide eyes in low vis- a standoff. The suspect was
communities are saying robot to kill a suspect. A who has been monitoring ibility situations. fatally shot by police when
they don’t want them,” grand jury declined charg- implementation of the new “We live in a time when un- he exited through the dam-
White said. es against the officers, and law as part of the American thinkable mass violence is aged doorway and fired a
Robots or otherwise, San then-Dallas Police Chief Friends Service Committee. becoming more common- weapon.
Francisco official David David O. Brown was wide- “I do think most depart- place. We need the option As of this week, the state at-
Chiu, who authored the ly praised for his handling ments are not prepared to be able to save lives in torney general’s office had
California bill when in the of the shooting and the to use their robots for le- the event we have that not completed its review of
state legislature, said com- standoff. thal force,” he said, “but if type of tragedy in our city,” the tactics used in the 2018
munities deserve more “There was this spray of asked, I suspect there are San Francisco Police Chief standoff, including the use
transparency from law en- doom about how police other departments that Bill Scott said in a state- of the explosive charge. A
forcement and to have a departments were going to would say, ‘we want that ment. report on the 2020 incident
say in the use of militarized use robots in the six months authority.’” Los Angeles Police De- only addressed the fatal
equipment. after Dallas,” said Mark Lo- San Francisco Supervisor partment does not have gunfire.q