San Francisco City Council councilors voted this Tuesday. authorize city police to use remote controlled robots that can kill people in emergencies. With eight votes in favor and one against the train, the majority in the San Francisco City Council agreed to give the police a vote, against all odds. strong objections from civil liberties and other groups police surveillance, ‘The Hill’ reported.
Police leaders repeatedly called for action emphasizing the need to be able to deploy robots with lethal force in “extremely rare cases against violent suspects,” such as attackers in suicide attacks. “Robots equipped in this way can only extreme conditions “To save or prevent further loss of innocent lives,” San Francisco Police spokesperson Allison Maxie said in a statement. According to the newspaper in question, civil liberties groups are “already very aggressive towards poor and minority communities”.
San Francisco Police currently have a dozen ground robots used to assess bombs or provide vision in low visibility conditions. According to the San Francisco Police, they were purchased between 2010 and 2017 and were not once used to launch explosive devices. According to police officers, all of these robots are capable of “handling criminal arrests, critical incidents, emergencies, carrying out a court order for suspicious device evaluations.”