Adraft policyproposed by the San Francisco Police Department ( SFPD ) would permit the section to kill suspects using robots , cause it the first in the region to gain blessing should it travel by the Board of Supervisors next week .
While economic consumption - of - force via robot has never been stringently prohibit , neither has it ever been have before in San Francisco , so the marriage offer is a landmark event in the use of remotely pilotedrobots .
The move comes under heavy critique for the addition of armament to robots , including far-flung conviction of the proposal and anongoing lawsuitfromBoston Dynamicsafter another company added a political machine gunslinger to one of its robot dogs .
According to the proposal , the policy will admit the use of deadly force by specific weaponized remotely - piloted , uncrewed robots , but only under specific circumstances .
“ The robots listed in this section shall not be utilized outside of breeding and simulations , deplorable apprehensions , critical incidents , exacting fate , executing a warrant or during funny gadget assessment , ” states the proposal .
“ Robots will only be used as a baneful effect option when risk of departure of life to appendage of the public or officers is imminent and outweighs any other force pick available to SFPD . ”
The proposal sketch special robots that will be tolerate for consumption , including a identification number of small , deployable bomb disposal and reconnaissance platform . Of note , it admit the massive REMOTEC F6A , a heavy - duty improvise explosive twist disposal golem with a largerobotic arm , and the QinetiQ TALON , which can be outfit with multiple different weapon system program .
Previous iterations of the proposal had the language “ robot shall not be used as a Use of Force against any person ” , according toMission Local . However , these have since been excise out in favour of wording outlining specific scenarios in which force could be used .
So , how could arobot be used to wipe out ?
There is the obvious answer of flog a gun to it , but that does n’t achieve much over simply using the gun yourself , apart from avoiding localize a human in the line of fire . More normally used are outback munition place on a automaton or drone , which is either cast close to a combatant , or the integral fomite is shove off up to remove the threat .
Such drones have been used in the conflict in Ukraine , and one was used in2016 by the Dallas police departmentto drop an explosive on a sniper in the first robot killing by a US constabulary section .
