A recent New York Times report details how New York City police used robotic dogs to help fight crime in the city. The latest story is the story of two men who were abducted from an apartment in the Bronx area. The two abductors entered the apartment disguised as plumbers, but soon took the residents hostage and tied them up for several hours. One of the victims managed to escape from the armed people, after which he turned to the police.
When the police arrived at the scene, because they weren't sure if the gunmen were still in the apartment, they used a robotic dog named Dihidog. The robot is equipped with a camera and lighting and allows police to remotely view the scene of an incident through two-way communication. The police team also said that the robot dog can see clearly in the dark thanks to its night vision camera.
In the Bronx case, police used Digidog to understand that the room was empty as the gunmen fled the scene. They are still looking for two robbers who stole a mobile phone and $ 2000 in cash and burned one of the victims with a soldering iron.
In an unusual way, this incident has raised some privacy concerns. Democratic Party Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called Digidog a mobile monitor on Twitter.
Jay Stanley, senior political analyst at the American Civil Liberties Union, said allowing robots to do police work would affect prejudice, mobile surveillance, hacking, and privacy concerns. Others are concerned that robots might interact with other technologies as weapons.
“We have seen many police stations fail to explain the situation to the communities they serve, introducing powerful new surveillance technologies and other technologies, let alone soliciting public input.” He said, "So, openness and transparency are paramount."
While these voiced concerns indicate what emerging robotics technologies may face in the future, we cannot ignore the fact that they will bring enormous benefits. Keith Taylor once served with SWAT and currently teaches at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. He said a mobile device that can remotely collect intelligence in unstable situations "has great potential" to reduce casualties.
“It is very important to interrogate the police, but the benefits seem obvious,” he said. "His goal is to help the police get the information they need without fatal gunfights."
The NYPD is one of three US police stations where this robot dog works. This is the Boston Dynamics' Spot robot, which went on sale last year. New York-based Plolice decided to call them Digidog.
We expect the use of robots to prevent cops from getting into dangerous situations will become commonplace in the near future.
In 2016, police faced an armed criminal who killed five police officers in Dallas and ended up killing him with a robot.
In 2015, a man with a knife threatened to jump off a bridge in San Jose, California. The police used a robot to provide him with a cell phone and pizza and eventually arrested him.
Last year, after a militant locked himself in a motel room, Albuquerque police used robots to "deploy chemical weapons" and eventually suppressed them.
