In late November, San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors has permitted a proposal that will enable the town’s police drive to make use of remote-controlled robots as a lethal drive choice when confronted with violent or armed suspects. The supervisors voted 8-to-3 in favor of constructing it a brand new coverage regardless of opposition by civil rights groups, however now they appear to have had a change of coronary heart. During the second of two required votes earlier than a coverage might be despatched to the mayor’s workplace for ultimate approval, the board voted 8-to-3 to explicitly ban the use of deadly drive by police robots. As San Francisco Chronicle notes, this about-face is fairly uncommon, because the board’s second votes are usually simply formalities that echo the primary ones’ outcomes.
The San Francisco Police Department made the proposal after a regulation got here into impact requiring California officers to outline the licensed makes use of of their military-grade gear. It would have allowed cops to equip robots with explosives “to contact, incapacitate, or disorient violent, armed, or dangerous suspects.” Authorities might solely use the robots for deadly drive after they’ve exhausted all different potentialities, and a high-ranking official must approve their deployment. However, critics are involved that the machines may very well be abused.
Dean Preston, one of many supervisors who oppose using robots as a lethal drive choice, stated the coverage will “place Black and brown people in disproportionate danger of harm or death.” In a more recent assertion made after the board’s second vote, Preston said: “There have been more killings at the hands of police than any other year on record nationwide. We should be working on ways to decrease the use of force by local law enforcement, not giving them new tools to kill people.”
While the supervisors voted to ban using deadly drive by police robots — for now, anyway — in addition they despatched the unique coverage proposing using killer robots again for evaluate. The board’s Rules Committee might now amend it additional to have stricter guidelines to be used of bomb-equipped robots, or it might scrap the previous proposal altogether.
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