Former police officer and self-proclaimed “geek” Eric Adams held a press conference in Times Square today to let the city know how much he loves police robots. The mayor of New York City hosted a press conference along with police officers to discuss a pair of pilots designed to increase surveillance of the city.
“I have stated this from day one, even when I was on the campaign trail: I am a computer geek. I think the technology is here, ”said the mayor at the top of his comments. “We cannot be afraid of him, and as [NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell] said, transparency is the key”.
At the top of the list is Digidog, an affectionate name police gave a Boston Dynamics Spot robot. The system was met with fierce public reaction when it was unveiled in 2021, following its implementation in public housing in Manhattan. “People had figured out the catchphrases and the language to somehow make this evil,” NYPD Deputy Commissioner John Miller said at the time.
The pilot was eventually pulled after a couple of months, fearing profiling and increased surveillance. “It was something that was introduced before, under a previous administration and some loud people opposed it, and we took a step back,” Adams said at today’s event. “This is not how I operate. I operate looking at what is best for the city”.
Spot will be joined by K5, Knightscope’s egg-shaped robot, which you’ve probably seen in malls. The well-funded robotics firm has been aggressively targeting law enforcement with its products, and a nod from New York City is obviously a big vote of confidence (though, again, this is currently a pilot). Also included in the announcement is StarChase’s GPS system, which can be used to track vehicles remotely.
Spot robots are $75,000 a piece, while K5 is typically trading at $60,000-$70,000 per year to rent. The news comes about a week after Adams announced massive pay increases for officers. The increases from 2.25% to 4% will apply retroactively to August 1, 2017. A week earlier, the mayor announced sweeping cuts to the New York public library system in the amount of $36.2 million.
These moves come amid media criticism of New York City’s crime rate. According a recent studyNYC currently ranks as the fifth safest city in the US with a population of over 300,000.
Late last year, the San Francisco Police Department drew national scrutiny for a provision that allowed its police robots to use “justified” deadly force. The section reads: “Robots will only be used as a deadly force option when the risk of loss of life to members of the public or officers is imminent and outweighs any other force option available to the SFPD.” That move was reversed the following week.
As with the robots the NYPD is deploying, none of the SFPD robots were designed to kill. However, in 2016, dallas became the first US police department to kill a suspect with a robot, placing an explosive in a bomb detection system.
A month before the initial news from San Francisco, Boston Dynamics joined four other leading companies in signing a pledge not to allow the use of weapons on its general-purpose robots. The open letter noted:
We believe that adding weapons to robots that are remotely or autonomously operated, widely available to the public and able to navigate to previously inaccessible places where people live and work, poses new risks of harm and serious ethical issues. Weaponized applications of these newly trained robots will also undermine public confidence in the technology in ways that undermine the tremendous benefits it will bring to society.
However, the mayor of New York is certainly optimistic about their use as surveillance systems. Adams cited the pushback on fingerprinting, post-9/11 police action, and CompStat to express concerns about the implementation of these new robotic police systems. He explained: “This is the beginning of a series of releases that we were going to do to show how public safety has been transformed,” noting that Spot and K5 are “just the beginning.”
Responding to a question from the audience, Adams added: “Digidog is now out of the pound.”
