The NYPD (New York Police Department) and New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who has focused his tenure on maintaining order and reducing crime, announced on April 11, 2023, during a press conference in Times Square, the deployment of new technologies to help police officers.
Among them, Spot, the dog robot from Boston Dynamics, which the New York police nicknamed “Digidog” (contraction of “digital dog”). It is returning to the city after a first aborted experiment in 2021. The NYPD would have acquired two for a total amount of 750,000 dollars.
Spot for reconnaissance in dangerous areas
Designed to carry out inspections in dangerous areas (which it already does on some construction sites), it will only be used, according to authorities, in operations that could endanger its agents such as bomb threats. or hostage taking.
The idea is to have him enter the premises first to study the situation in order to program the intervention of the agents as well as possible. It navigates autonomously on a mapped course and includes many remote control and recording options.
First introduced in 2020 to carry out the same missions, it had been used concretely for reconnaissance when a gunman barricaded himself inside a building, as well as in the middle of an invasion. home to get a glimpse of what was going on inside.
An initiative criticized
But its use had drawn the ire of civil liberties groups, concerned about the effect the camera-equipped robot could have on the privacy of New York citizens. The project had also been criticized for the large sum it represented
Unsurprisingly, its re-adoption has revived the same controversies. “Wasting public money to invade the privacy of New Yorkers is a dangerous stunt by the police“, reacted the “Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (STOP)”, adding that New York would do better “to invest in real human beings rather than robots“.
The Knightscope K5 for active patrols
For active patrols, the NYPD plans to deploy the Knightscope K5, designed by the American company Knightscope. An ovoid robot on wheels weighing 180 kilos and one meter fifty tall equipped with a 360-degree camera system, a thermal camera, a LiDAR, a sonar, a GPS, sixteen microphones and a loudspeaker to broadcast live or pre-recorded messages.
It can autonomously patrol small areas, detect people, recognize license plates and use facial recognition, although the New York police have assured that this feature will not be used. The robot will be deployed in July as part of a “pilot” program and will patrol Times Square or subway stations accompanied by a police officer.
In addition to these robots, the New York Police Department has announced that it will equip its Guardian HX officers with StarChase, portable launchers capable of sending GPS beacons to moving vehicles, allowing them to follow their tracks without having to to perform high-speed chases, often dangerous in the middle of the city.
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