The robot was deployed after a sniper shot 12 police officers, leaving 5 dead. After a five-hour standoff, with shots still being fired, Police Chief David Brown made the unprecedented decision.
Shades of a Black Mirror Episode?
In a 2019 episode of the science fiction TV show “Black Mirror,” humans are in a fight-to-the-finish with a robotic dog that looks suspiciously like Boston Dynamics “Spot.” The episode name is “Metalhead.” And it portrays many of the worst-case scenarios that Cahn and Councilman Kallos describe.
There are also many policing experts that support the NYPD robo-dog and AI technology.
Then Dallas Police Chief said in a 2016 press conference that “We saw no other option but to use our bomb robot and place a device on its extension for it to detonate where the suspect was….other options would have exposed our officers to grave danger. And the suspect is deceased as a result of detonating the bomb.”
NYPD TARU Inspector Frank Digiacomo says that “This dog is going to save lives, protect people, and protect officers and that’s our goal.”
