Robot police dog encounter shows public’s concern, worry

 

Robots are showing up more often in public places, sometimes to the surprise, or distress, of passersby.

On Monday, a remote-controlled police robot dog was spotted leaving a Manhattan public housing apartment after a man was arrested in a domestic dispute.

A small crowd watched the dog enter and depart the building. One woman tweeted a video of the episode on Monday, declaring it “wild” to see it in action. “I’ve never seen nothing like this before in my life,” a woman is heard speaking on the video. The short video has been viewed 8.1 million times.

The video shows the robot leaving along with two New York Police Department officers, one holding a remote control pad. Eventually it descends a short flight stairs using its four legs.

The robot, designed by Boston Dynamics, is better known as Spot, and has the ability to climb and descend stairs and open doors.  Normally painted bright yellow, the New York Police Department version is blue with the label “Digidog” on its side. The 70-pound robot is equipped with sensors, lights and cameras to collect data and starts at $74,000. It comes with a 90-minute battery life and walks about 3 mph.

NYPD has used the robot dog a few times since last October at crime scenes and hostage situations, but only was on standby at the domestic incident on East 28th Street, according to police as reported by Gothamist.

In February, NYPD tweeted it has used robots since the 1970s to save lives in hostage situations and hazmat cases.  The robot dog is only being tested to evaluate its capabilities in comparison to other models used by the city’s emergency service unit and bomb squad.

Public comments tweeted about Monday’s encounter included many by people concerned about invasion of privacy and the militarization of the police, but also the cost of investing in robots when other city needs are not being met. 

City Councilmember Ben Kallos introduced a bill recently to ban the NYPD from using “weaponized robots,” although it would not ban unarmed utility robots like Digidog. Boston Dynamics has terms of service with customers that Spot will not be used as a weapon or configured that way.

U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY, tweeted concerns in February about the allocation of resources. “Please ask yourself: when was the last time you saw next-generation, world-class technology for education, healthcare, housing, etc consistently prioritizes for underserved communities like this?

Spot went on sale last June, with most buyers in the utility and energy sector, according to an executive at Boston Dynamics quoted in a report by The New York Times. Massachusetts State Police and the Honolulu Police Department are also using a model.

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