The Morning After: San Francisco reverses approval of deadly police robots | Engadget

In November, the San Francisco Police Department proposed approving using remote-controlled robots with lethal pressure. This was after a regulation got here into impact requiring California officers to outline the licensed use of military-grade tools. It would have allowed police to equip robots with explosives “to contact, incapacitate or disorient violent, armed or dangerous suspects.”

San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors permitted this proposal, initially, regardless of opposition by civil rights teams. However, in the course of the second of two required votes, the board voted to ban using deadly pressure by police robots. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, that is uncommon because the board’s second votes sometimes echo the primary outcomes. In the preliminary proposal, authorities may solely use the robots for deadly pressure after they’ve exhausted all different prospects, and a high-ranking official must approve their deployment.

Dean Preston, a supervisor who opposes using robots as lethal pressure, mentioned the coverage will “place Black and brown people in disproportionate danger of harm or death.” In a subsequent assertion, Preston mentioned: “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.”

– Mat Smith

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