Robot dogs at @NYCHA? Completely and utterly bizarre. Elected officials are also talking about drones 'overseeing construction' which is ahem…surveillance of POC. Are there any controls/enforcement to these mechanisms? You already know the answer to that one… #scaryrobotdogs https://t.co/pBwIwcQBYD
— Marni Halasa (@Marni4Council) April 15, 2021
Some Fear, Some Embrace Robo-dog
Digidog is creating some issues wherever it goes. The advocacy group Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (STOP) is concerned about constant surveillance and privacy issues.
STOP founder Albert Fox Cahn says that “The NYPD is turning New Yorkers into surveillance guinea pigs. We keep hearing the same rhetoric from Mayor de Blasio that he believes in community-based policing, but I don’t see any community that’s calling for these creepy robots.”
The NYPD’s robot dog units were also the subject of legislation introduced by City Councilmember Ben Kallos that proposes a ban on the NYPD using “weaponized robots.”
Kallos says that the bot is one more step towards increasing police militarization and weaponized technology. And he talks about the 2016 use of a bomb-carrying mobile robot unit by the Dallas, Texas police. The event marks the first time U.S. police used a robot or a bomb to kill a suspect.
