According to Mission Local, San Francisco police want robots to kill suspects, but the proposal has strong opposition from both inside and outside the Board.
In situations where “risk of loss of life to members of the public or officers is imminent and outweighs any other force option available to SFPD,” robots could be used by police to kill suspects, according to a policy that the San Francisco Police Department has sent to the city’s Board of Supervisors, according to Engadget citing Mission Local.
The initial proposal, according to Mission Local, has already encountered strong opposition from both inside and outside the Board. Supervisor Aaron Peskin, for example, initially opposed the notion until he added language that would entirely neutralise the death-bots.
“Robots shall not be used as a Use of Force against any person,” he wrote, which the SFPD then removed in a subsequent draft.
The police force currently maintains a dozen fully-functional remote-controlled robots, which are typically used for area inspections and bomb disposal. However, as the Dallas PD showed in 2016, they make excellent bomb delivery platforms as well. Bomb disposal units are often equipped with blank shotgun shells used to forcibly disrupt an explosive device’s internal workings, though there is nothing stopping police from using live rounds if they needed, as Oakland police recently acknowledged to that city’s civilian oversight board. -Engadget
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