The Los Angeles City Council voted to approve a resolution to allow the Los Angeles Police Department to accept the donation of a robot dog.
The council voted 8-4 on Tuesday to allow the LAPD to accept the Boston Dynamics “SPOT” quadruped unmanned ground vehicle from the Los Angeles Police Foundation.
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The robot, which is valued at roughly $277,000, would be used by the SWAT unit of the police department during select instances, including active shootings, hostage situations, natural disasters, and search and rescue, among other specific incidents outlined by the LAPD. The police also said it would not be used for routine patrols or for surveillance operations.
Despite assurances from the police that the robot would not be used for surveillance, some members of the council expressed concerns regarding the robot dog.
“This item is being painted as merely an acceptance of a donation, but it really represents an expansion of the current boundaries around policing and surveillance,” Councilman Hugo Soto-Martinez said before the vote.
Soto-Martinez then discussed the expansion of the use of drones by police forces and expressed concerns about how the robot dog may be used in the future.
“This is highly disturbing automation of law enforcement that sets a dangerous precedent for our future and our community’s safety, and for that, I will be voting no today,” he concluded.
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The usage of robots in policing in the Golden State grabbed attention last year when San Francisco initially voted to allow robots to use deadly force in specific instances.
Police in San Francisco insisted robots would not have been armed with guns but rather explosives and would have been used as a “last resort option,” but the city Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to ban the policy a week after approving it by an 8-3 vote.
