Terminators Coming To San Francisco? SFPD Proposes Using Deadly Robots

For those of us who were around in the early 1980s, “The Terminator” movie featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger, showed the possible ramifications of using AI-equipped humanoids to administer justice.

Communist China has been using robots for policing throughout the pandemic.

Following is a video showing the CCP using robot dogs to enforce Covid lockdown rules.

Fast forward to 2022, local police departments are considering opening pandora’s box too, following the successful elimination of a mass shooter, using a robot, by the Dallas police department.

On July 8th, 2016, the Dallas police shooting marked the first time U.S. police officers used a robot to kill someone, according to Texas and national experts.

NYC has recently used robotic dogs during training and for high-risk hostage situations.

The San Francisco police department has just proposed that it be allowed to use robots with “deadly force” while responding to incidents, according to a policy draft.

The document outlines how the department proposes to use its collection of robots, which number 17 in total although 12 are not operational.

The remote-controlled devices are generally used for area inspection and bomb disposal, a police spokesperson told Mission Local.

The department wants to use them for “training and simulations, criminal apprehensions, critical incidents, exigent circumstances, executing a warrant or during suspicious device assessments”.

The department’s newer Remotec model robots have an optional weapons system, according to the Verge, and its model F5A can load shotgun shells often used in bomb detonation. The QinetiQ Talon, too, can be weaponized. A model in use by the US army can be modified to add machine guns and grenade launchers, according to the site.

The SFPD proposal would allow these robots to kill people “when risk of loss of life to members of the public or officers is imminent and outweighs any other force option available to SFPD”.

Giving robots the ability to kill would assist officers with “ground support and situational awareness”.

The original version of the draft, reportedly, did not mention deadly force until a member of the city’s board of supervisors added that “robots shall not be used as a Use of Force against any person”.

The department struck the phrase out and rephrased it to the statement justifying deadly force in the face of imminent danger and lack of other options, according to Mission Local.

A version of the document has been approved by the board of supervisors’ rules committee. It awaits the decision of the full board next week.

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