On Friday, September 22nd, the New York Police Department had a press conference in a subway station in Manhattan. There, they revealed that they would soon be deploying a pilot program using the Knightscope K5 security robot service at that same subway station. The robot will be trained and configured for the first two weeks. After that, it will perform safety checks from 12:00 am to 6:00 am daily.
“This is a good investment in taxpayer dollars, … below minimum wage – no bathroom breaks, no meal breaks,” The mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, said about the robots.
This technology has actually been used before, in Los Angeles. According to one agency in Los Angeles, Knightscope’s robots helped lower crime in a popular park.
Along with the Knightscope K5 security robots, Adams stated that the NYPD will also acquire two of Boston Dynamic’s semi-autonomous robotic dogs, known as Spot. The NYPD claims that these robots will not be patrolling by themselves, and will only be deployed in scenarios with high danger for humans, similar to the bomb-squad robots the NYPD already uses.
The reaction to these robots seem to be mixed. Most police officers seem to be excited by these new technologies, though most citizens seem to greet the robots with distaste. A big concern from New Yorkers is the matter of privacy, though there is also concern about the deployment of these hulking robots onto the already-crowded streets and subway stations of New York.
Related Stories:
- https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/nypd-now-has-a-robot-police-officer-for-its-manhattan-subway
- https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/22/nyregion/police-robot-times-square-nyc.html
- https://www.wired.com/story/nypd-spot-boston-dynamics-robot-dog/
- https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/04/nypd-robocops-hulking-400-lb-robots-will-start-patrolling-new-york-city/
- https://www.npr.org/2023/04/16/1170315846/nypds-high-tech-robots-are-creeping-out-new-yorkers
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