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Robotics Crime

The NYPD Is Bringing Back Its Robot Dog (theverge.com) 54

Posted by BeauHD from the now's-the-time dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: The New York Police Department is reenlisting Digidog, the four-legged robot that the city faced backlash for deploying a few years back, as reported earlier by The New York Times. NYC Mayor Eric Adams announced the news during a press event on Tuesday, stating that the use of Digidog in the city can "save lives." Digidog -- also known as Spot -- is a remote-controlled robot made by the Hyundai-owned Boston Dynamics. It's designed to work in situations that may pose a threat to humans, helping to do things like perform inspections in dangerous areas and monitor construction sites. However, Boston Dynamics also touts its use as a public safety tool, which the NYPD has tried in the past.

City officials say that the NYPD will acquire two robot dogs for a total of $750,000, according to the NYT, and that they will only be used during life-threatening situations, such as bomb threats. "I believe that technology is here; we cannot be afraid of it," Mayor Adams said during Tuesday's press conference. "A few loud people were opposed to it, and we took a step back — that is not how I operate. I operate on looking at what's best for the city." The Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (STOP), a group that advocates against the use of local and state-level surveillance, has denounced Mayor Adams' move. "The NYPD is turning bad science fiction into terrible policing," Albert Fox Cahn, STOP's executive director, says in a statement. "New York deserves real safety, not a knockoff robocop. Wasting public dollars to invade New Yorkers' privacy is a dangerous police stunt."
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The NYPD Is Bringing Back Its Robot Dog More

The NYPD Is Bringing Back Its Robot Dog

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  • can it do stairs?

  • Can it be hacked?

    • An anonymous developer on the robodog project angered by NYPD's proposed application of placement in minority schools already leaked a bunch of data on the subject. Particularly conditions that trigger the dog to shut down, terrain conditions that the dog cannot navigate, and physical and communication vulnerabilities. You tell researchers its for military use and will never be used against U.S. civilians, then as soon as they are operable try to put them in middle schools, you are going to get some leaks.

      • It has no weapons. It's basically a drone on legs. Useful for remote surveillance in situations where a drone would be unable to fly and putting a person in would be risky or otherwise undesirable. I'm just not seeing the cause for outrage here.

        Like... imagine a camera on a tripod could walk... and had an extra leg... you know what, I'm ending this analogy now before the weirdos show up.

        • The cause for outrage was that in a school district where they are desperately short of teachers, they chose to ignore that funding request and instead chose to put in expensive dogs with even more expensive handlers. The team to run one was two full time and one part time NYPD folks, all with 6 figure salaries and overtime, plus the robot and the deployment vehicle. So hundreds of thousands of dollars per year/per dog straight from the school budget to the NYPD, not to books or teachers. In other words, fo

      • Please link this leaked info. It'll be useful for everybody.

    • Of course. All technology of any kind can be hacked.

    • I was wondering if it would avoid walking across a net stretched out on the ground. Sometimes low tech is best.

    • I would venture the answer is yes; most likely it can easily be shut down or disabled by careful deployment of a five dollar hatchet.

  • "Wasting public dollars to invade New Yorkers' privacy is a dangerous police stunt."

    Given publicity, it seems logical, though. Spending $750k to add a few officers may be helpful, but would be controversial in a different way. The few times these will be effective against crime will make headlines, while you have to hope a few new officers won't be news.

    • RobotDog has capabilities that human officers don't. And in a dangerous situation, it's a lot better to lose $750K than human lives.

      • RobotDog has capabilities that human officers don't.

        Clearly, human officers have many more capabilities that this robot doesn't. The salient things this robot doesn't have are a family and/or expensive life insurance liabilities.

  • So the robot is going to patrol a construction site during off hours? I don't see the benefit over ordinary surveillance cameras. Will it alert someone if it somehow autonomously detects theft or vandalism without having to be constantly monitored? That would be the plus.

    I do understand the bomb threat scenario. Maybe it can navigate into some areas that a simple rover wouldn't be able to reach. Can it retrieve a suspicious knapsack?

  • If it's used for it's intended purpose... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    .. going after some baddie during a life-or-death situation that death of a machine is cheap compared to that of a human.. it's worth every penny.

    Saying "No" to the technology isn't going to stop it.. have the city council put some iron-clad guardrails around it - such as:
    Human must be in loop for all engagement scenarios.
    Human must "pull the trigger" if the dog is weaponized e.g. laser beams
    May only be used in "active" situations. Define "active" - e.g. active-shooter.
    etc.
    You want your toys? Fine - We wan

    • Like no knock search warrants meant for imminent terrorist activity now used for low level drug dealers. Cops already have qualified immunity from wrongdoing and this will further cement it. Want to know how fucked up qualified immunity is? Everything is legal unless a judge has previously ruled it illegal. No laws involved, only past rulings. Like stealing from a suspect is fine until a judge has said they can’t.

    • They were not originally planning on using it to go after "some baddie". The original plan was to replace additional teacher funding, and diverting that money instead to NYPD employees running robot dogs in low income inner city minority schools. People rightly had some objections to that. Now they are back spinning it as something to protect us from terrorists or something, which means it will get funded and a week later it will be in schools instead. Just like LRAD's and all the rest they claimed was nev

  • And then it will truly be effective as a crime deterrent

    • Spot would need to be a lot larger. The GAU-8 itself weighs 280 kg, but the complete weapon, with feed system and drum, weighs nearly two tonnes with a maximum ammunition load. It measures nearly 6 meters from the muzzle to the rearmost point of the ammunition system, To handle the firepower, it would need to become Spotzilla.

  • Making the world actually look like a Neill Blomkamp movie or a Black Mirror episode might wake more people up to how bad things actually are. More things should look as bad as they really are.

  • Shooting at police officers is generally frowned upon, but taking out one of these things in a particularly clever or amusing way could almost be regarded as a rite of passage for New York's "troubled youth".

  • "It’s designed to work in situations that may pose a threat to humans" Sounds like something the fire department would benefit more from than the police.

  • Act Accordingly. [youtube.com]

    Do keep in mind, however, that Wranglerstar has been getting nuttier and nuttier over the last year, but he still comes out with a few gems now and then.

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