A new draft policy would allow robots used by the San Francisco Police Department to kill suspects as an extreme last-resort in emergency situations.
The Department currently has 17 remote-controlled robots, which are governed by the Law Enforcement Use of Equipment Policy. This policy currently reads that “Robots shall not be used as a Use of Force against any person.”
However, it has been suggested that this should be amended to read “Robots will only be used as a deadly force option when risk of loss of life to members of the public or officers are imminent and outweigh any other force option available to SFPD.”
Supervisor Aaron Peskin reportedly said that police had argued that “there could be scenarios where deployment of lethal force was the only option.”
The change is set to be voted on by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors next week.
Reacting to the news, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) tweeted “You’ve got to be kidding.”
You've got to be kidding. https://t.co/dr7Za0KVZL
— ACLU of Northern CA (@ACLU_NorCal) November 23, 2022
The ACLU has spoken out previously against the police using robots to kill suspects, such as in 2016, when Dallas police used a robot to kill a man who had shot and killed five police officers and wounded seven more.
In that incident the police took a bomb disposal robot, attached an explosive to its arm, and detonated it near the suspect, killing him.
#tech Use of police robot to kill Dallas shooting suspect believed to be first… https://t.co/8m1muPWAqJ #technology pic.twitter.com/rnWcb1XAiJ
— Eric Vanderburg (@evanderburg) September 19, 2016
“We saw no other option but to use our bomb robot and place a device on its extension for it to detonate where the suspect was,” Dallas police chief David Brown said at the time.
However, the ACLU criticised the move shortly after the incident.
“Our biggest concern is that armed robots will be over-used,” they wrote.
“As robots allow deadly force to be applied more easily and with less risk to police officers, and as they get cheaper and more commonplace, there is a risk that they will turn into yet another avenue for abusive behaviour by some in law enforcement.”
A similar policy was previously suggested in the California county of Oakland, but was abandoned following backlash.
A back-and-forth between the Oakland Police Department and a civilian oversight body concluded with the police relinquishing their push for official language that would have allowed them to kill humans with robots under certain circumstances. https://t.co/HrNWFNg0Ph
— The Intercept (@theintercept) October 17, 2022