After receiving official consent from the city’s Board of Supervisors, the police in San Francisco will be permitted to employ robots with lethal capabilities. The official body had been debating the issue in great detail for a while before voting on Wednesday led to the ultimate conclusion.
According to the Washington Post, the newly-approved policy will allow the police to use robots to kill “when the risk of loss of life to members of the public or officers is imminent and officers cannot subdue the threat after using alternative force options or de-escalation tactics.”
The current policy has the support of the authorities, but before it is brought to the mayor for final approval, it must win the second round of voting. One of three top police leaders will need to approve the use of the robots, and the tactic will only be used in “extreme situations.”
Robots are currently utilized chiefly for reconnaissance, bomb disposal, and rescue operations by the San Francisco Police Department. Robert Rueca, a department spokeswoman, was clear that the robots are not armed and that it will take time for the police to develop a strategy for efficiently teaching them to “contact, incapacitate, or disorient” a hazardous individual.
The Surveillance Technology Oversight Project’s executive director, Albert Fox Cahn, voiced concern about the development and warned that it could set a risky precedent in the United States.“In my knowledge, this would be the first city to take this step of passing a law authorizing killer robots,” Cahn told The Post.