“Today. We are announcing. Three new policing technologies in New York City,” police commissioner Keechent Sewell announced in a somber, historic tone, like she was addressing graduates of West Point.
“The K5, autonomous security robot.” [Which doesn’t look like a sex toy. Not at all].
“The ‘Spot,’ digidog robot (which is nothing, at all, like the killer dog robots in the episode of Black Mirror where robot dogs kill every human on earth).
“And the Star Chase, GPS Attachment system.”
The digidog was introduced by Bill deBlasio in 2021, but swiftly scrapped when … everyone freaked out, for obvious reasons.
The NYPD abruptly terminated its lease and quit using the robot last month. Other U.S. police departments have been testing their own Spot models, however. “Spot has been particularly resourceful in tackling dull, dirty and dangerous tasks,” the Boston Dynamics spokesperson told Scientific American. “Public safety initiatives, including police departments, often face dangerous work, such as inspecting a bomb, rummaging through remnants of an explosion or fire, or even deescalating a potentially dangerous situation.”
Complex social and historical factors influenced the NYPD's decision to pull Digidog from duty. “This is just not a very good time for [the NYPD] to have tried this,” says David J. Gunkel, a professor of communication at Northern Illinois University. He notes the department made the move “at a time that we are, as a public, beginning to question what police are doing, how they’re being funded and what those monies are being used for.” Scientific American spoke with Gunkel about why people accept some machines while rejecting others—and whether the public can ever fully accept the idea of robotic cops.
Mayor Eric Adams though has no time for the haters.
“A few loud people were opposed to it and we took a step back,” the mayor said. “That is not how I operate. I operate on looking at what’s best for the city.”
Adams said the remote-controlled, 70-pound (32-kilogram) Digidog will be deployed in risky situations like hostage standoffs starting this summer.
OK, first, how many “hostage standoffs” are we looking at this summer? Because there weren’t any last summer, or the summer before that. Or the one before that…
The dystopian aspects are obvious. But you never know how technology will pan out. I used to rail against the 10 trillion security cameras all over the city, but they mostly just capture misbehavior by cops. Also, since the mid-aughts we’ve all been surveilling ourselves with our iPhones.
The real problem is more anodyne. Adams has threatened to cut back library hours because of budget shortages. He’s been bitching about the burden placed on the city by migrants, and threatened that New Yorkers may have to give up on vital services due to the cost of people who risked their lives to come to America to do shit jobs Americans don’t want to do.
Anyway, but, I guess there’s money for a fleet of RoboCops. The estimated cost of a single DigiDog unit is $74,000 (and that’s likely a low-ball).
NYC is the greatest city on earth, partly because the minute an ad for a movie or perfume goes up in the subway, someone draws a dick and devil horns on it. How long until all of these very expensive toys are just covered in obscenities? I give it an hour. How long til teenagers start a fun Tik-Tok trend of shoving them onto the subway tracks or hitting them with bats? A day, tops.
Actually this might be fun, the idea of a fleet of NYPD dildo robots buzzing around the city with ACAB spray painted on them! Just seems like there might be better uses for the money?
Also would be very curious to know if any of the shady guys Adams has “vegan dinner” with are investors in Boston Dynamics ….
So, Robocop is finally going to be a reality? Nice.