Time.news – First go-ahead from the county of San Francisco (8 in favor and 3 against) for the possibility of placing real robot-killers alongside the policemen, equipped to be able to kill. To become law, the proposal must be approved again by the council (scheduled for December 6) and be signed by Mayor London Breed, a Democrat. But the road appears to be downhill, as Breed has already expressed support for this hypothesis.
As expected, the clash between those in favor and those who think that automatons would tend to create a distance between the crime and the emotional impact has reignited, making murder more acceptable. Not only that, but they also argue that this choice could lead to further militarization of law enforcement.
The San Francisco Police Department could use robots to deploy lethal force “in extreme circumstances” under a policy advanced by city supervisors. One expert said it was the first city in the U.S. that had approved such a policy. https://t.co/zNJ3V65Ee5
— The New York Times (@nytimes) November 30, 2022
The green light from the Board of Supervisors, the Council of supervisors, would allow agents to deploy, in extreme circumstances, automatons equipped with explosives. These, according to the police of the Californian city, could be useful “to violate structures containing violent, armed or dangerous subjects”, could serve to “make ineffective or disorient violent suspects”. In short, only in non-ordinary situations.
David Lazar, assistant chief of the San Francisco Police Department, cited as an example the man who opened fire from his hotel room in a Las Vegas high-rise in 2017, killing 60 people. The California city police also said that the department does not currently have robots with lethal force, but that the measure may be necessary in the future.
“No policy can anticipate every conceivable situation or exceptional circumstance that officers may face”. Of course, the proposal was approved with an amendment specifying that officers (not all, only the most senior) could use robots with a license to kill only after doing everything possible to avoid escalation.
However, one fact above all escapes the head-on collision between those in favor and against: this kind of robot has already been used in the United States for some time. The first time was in 2016, when Dallas police used a robot armed with C-4 explosives to kill a sniper who had fatally shot two officers and injured several others. The federal government has long provided military-grade equipment to local law enforcement officers: camouflage uniforms, bayonets and armored vehicles.
From these to the robots, the distance is not sidereal. Not only. By admission of the San Francisco police itself, robots are already available for reconnaissance, bomb disposal and rescue operations. And among the automatons are just the kind used in Dallas in 2016.”I just want to reiterate that the equipment is already in our possessiona spokesperson said.
“We’ve never had to use it that way and I hope we never have to use it that way. But we need the option to be able to save lives in case we have that kind of tragedy in our city.”