Police in San Francisco will be allowed to deploy potentially lethal, remote-controlled robots in emergency situations. The controversial policy was approved after weeks of scrutiny and a heated debate among the city’s board of supervisors during their meeting on Tuesday.
The vote was 8-3, with the majority agreeing to grant police the option despite strong objections from civil liberties and other police oversight groups. Opponents said the authority would lead to the further militarization of a police force already too aggressive with poor and minority communities, as reported by the Associated Press (AP).
A change to the new policy that clarifies the situations in which robots may be used as well as the fact that only senior officers would be authorised to use deadly force was accepted.
According to the San Francisco Police Department, there are no robots that are already armed and there are no plans to arm robots with weapons. However, if lives are at risk, the agency may send out robots armed with explosive charges "to confront, incapacitate, or disorient belligerent, armed, or dangerous suspect," according to SFPD spokesman Allison Maxie.
“Robots equipped in this manner would only be used in extreme circumstances to save or prevent further loss of innocent lives,” she said.
Supervisors changed the proposal on Tuesday, according to the AP, to state that police could only use robots after using alternative force or de-escalation techniques, or after determining they would not be able to subdue the subject using those alternative methods. The use of robots as a deadly force option could only be approved by a small group of senior authorities.
According to the department, San Francisco police presently has twelve operational ground robots that are used to examine bombs or act as eyes in dimly light environments. According to police sources, they were purchased between 2010 and 2017 and have never been utilised to deliver an explosive device.
But after a new California law took effect this year requiring police and sheriffs agencies to inventory military-grade weaponry and request clearance for its usage, express authorization was needed.
The Oakland Police Department has abandoned a similar plan on the other side of the San Francisco Bay following criticism from the general population.
In 2016, Dallas police sent in an armed robot that killed a sniper who was holed up and had just killed five officers in an ambush. This was the first time a robot had been used to deliver explosives in the United States.
