Police in San Francisco want to deploy killer robots. They want to send these killing machines into dangerous situations where a human killer might be injured or killed themselves.
A new policy by the San Francisco Police Department suggests using its 17 remote-controlled robots to send into dangerous situations and use lethal force. Only 12 of the 17 robots are operational right now.
These unmanned robots are often used to defuse bombs and deal with hazardous materials, so that personnel can stay at a safe distance and out of dangers’ way. However, these robots are capable of being armed with deadly force, like the one that was dispatched in Dallas in 2016. The robot was armed with an explosive device and it was wheeled out remotely to detonate near a gunmen that had killed five officers. Micah Xavier Johnson was the first man that US law enforcement killed using a robot.
“The robots listed in this section shall not be utilized outside of training and simulations, criminal apprehensions, critical incidents, exigent circumstances, executing a warrant or during suspicious device assessment,” the policy draft states. “Robots will only be used as a deadly force option when risk of loss of life to members of the public or officers is imminent and outweighs any other force option available to SFPD.”
Although SFPD says that using these killer robots would be rare and only used in exceptionally deadly circumstances, it has dystopian implications. It doesn’t take much to imagine that this could be the beginning of a more common adoption for police departments across the nation. There are many deadly circumstances police walk into, traffic stops can be one of the most risky parts of a cop’s job. It wouldn’t take much to argue that if these weaponized robots are deployed in exceptional cases, why not also protect police lives by dispatching the robots during common routine policing, any situation where there is unknown risk to the lives of the police.
Robots are becoming increasingly common in US police departments, with thousands of robots currently in use by law enforcement.