The San Francisco Board of Supervisors has temporarily barred the San Francisco Police Department from using robots to kill people, sending the proposal back to the committee for further discussion after public outcry.
The decision was reversed from the previous decision last week, which allowed police to use robots as a deadly force option when the public or officers are imminent and outweigh any other force option available to the SFPD, according to a draft proposal submitted by the police department.
Police wanted the ability to put explosives on its robots, as well as the robot that exploded in 2016 in Dallas. The vote of the board of supervisors came from a new California law which requires the police department to inventory their military-grade equipment. SFPD owns 17 robots.
The board revoked its decision after a recent announcement that the ACLU of Northern California and other members of the public refused to adopt the new policy.
Milditarize the local police department with 272 reform recommendations, said one speaker at the rally. When you’re in military force, we know, of disproportionately, these weapons will be used against people of color. The ACLU shared the statement on Twitter.
ACLU of Northern CA (@ACLU_NorCal) December 5, 2022.
Tifanei Moyer, senior law firm of San Francisco Bay Area’s lawyers, told the local media organization Mission Local that we were living in a dystopian future; where we debate whether the police can execute citizens without a trial, a jury, or a judge. This isn’t normal. No legal professional or other resident should continue as normal.
Even Boston Dynamics, the company that designed and manufactured the now infamous four-legged dog-like robots, has written an open letter denouncing the use of general-purpose robots to kill people. We believe that adding weapons to robots that are remotely or autonomously operated, widely accessible to the public, capable of navigating to otherwise inaccessible locations where people live and work, raises new risks and serious ethical issues. These newly-able robots will also harm public trust in the technology, and damage the huge value that they will bring to society. For these reasons, we don’t support robotics.
(featured image: Wikimedia Commons).