San Francisco supervisors voted in favor of legalizing the use of robots in emergency situations amid emotionally charged debate.
Reports revealed that the city police will be allowed to use potentially lethal, remote-controlled robots to haunt, execute and apprehend dangerous criminals in exceptional instances.
In an exclusive report released by Associated Press, it was revealed that “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.”
However, despite the clear objective and target of the mandate, oppositions of the policy argued that the new authority granted to the police officers would only lead to the further militarization of a police force already too aggressive with poor and minority communities.
In response to the concerns, Supervisor Connie Chan, a member of the committee who forwarded the proposal to the full board released a statement, claiming that she understood concerns over use of force but that “according to state law, we are required to approve the use of these equipments. So here we are, and it’s definitely not a easy discussion.”
Moreover, San Francisco Police Department also made it clear it does not have pre-armed robots and has no plans to arm robots with guns and added that the robots would only be equipped with explosive charges “to contact, incapacitate, or disorient violent, armed, or dangerous suspect” when lives are at stake, SFPD spokesperson Allison Maxie said in an official statement.
“Robots equipped in this manner would only be used in extreme circumstances to save or prevent further loss of innocent lives,” she added.
On Tuesday, the supervisors amended the proposal to specify that officers could only use the robots “after using alternative force or de-escalation tactics, or concluding they would not be able to subdue the suspect through those alternative means,” the report added.
Previously, Board of Supervisors Rules Committee Aaron Peskin who initially suggested limiting the SFPD’s authority over the department’s robots claimed that “the original policy they submitted was actually silent on whether robots could deploy lethal force. Robots shall not be used as a Use of Force against any person.” However, it was later on rejected by the police department.
“Robots will only be used as a deadly force option when risk of loss of life to members of the public or officers are imminent and outweigh any other force option available to SFPD,” the policy proposal read.
In addition, Peskin also explained the department’s reason behind this movement, claiming that “there could be scenarios where deployment of lethal force was the only option.”
