Authorities in New York, USA, decided to reintroduce the robot dog ‘DigiTalk’, which had withdrawn from the plan due to privacy concerns, to the crime scene.
According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on the 11th (local time), New York City Mayor Eric Adams held a press conference and said, “New York police will use more robots to fight crime.”
Mayor Adams said it would help with policing. “If we don’t move forward in making our cities safe and actively use technology, we won’t be able to keep up with the people who harm our cities,” he said.
New York City’s plans include deploying ‘K5’ (snitchbots) in Times Square. Snitchbot is 1.5m in size and looks similar to ‘R2-D2’, a robot that appears in the movie Star Wars. It is a surveillance robot equipped with a 360-degree video camera, more than a dozen microphones, speakers, and a thermal sensor. controlled remotely
The New York Police Department plans to pilot Snitchbots at the Times Square subway station this summer for seven months and then officially deploy them.
Regarding the point that this robot could invade privacy, the police tried to dispel concerns by saying that it has a license plate reading function but does not have a human face recognition function.
Along with this, New York City explained that it bought two ‘Digi Dogs’, which move on four legs and are called robot dogs. It is expected to be useful at the scene of an incident such as a hostage situation. The police said that the Digidog will also be equipped with technology to detect dangerous gases.
In addition, ‘Star Chase’, a robot that shoots tracking devices at suspicious vehicles, will also be used.
However, plans to deploy ‘Digidog’, a robotic detection dog, were withdrawn in 2021. This is because of concerns about invasion of privacy and excessive militarization of the police.
Progressive politicians and civic groups reiterated their concerns about plans to deploy robots on the same day.
They accused it of “transforming bad science fiction into terrible cops.” “Mayor Adams cuts libraries and tells city agencies to cut costs, but he spends money on robots,” he said, not using the budget properly.
Former police officer Patrick Lynch said, “Robots can help in some ways, but they can’t replace human officers.”
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.