San Francisco's Board of Supervisors have approved police deployment of remote controlled robots with lethal capacity, in emergency and crisis situations.

These are not autonomous AI driven machines. Humans will control them. So not Robocop yet, though autonomous killer drones do exist and have been used by the military.

Supervisor Rafel Manderson who voted in favour of them said:

Under this policy, SFPD is authorized to use these robots to carry out deadly force in extremely limited situations when risk to loss of life to members of the public or officers is imminent and outweighs any other force option available.

Police misuse of deadly force in the United States has been widely reported upon by the media.

Seemingly without any substantial response from authorities.

Could this be it?

Assuming that they can't be hacked, remote controlled robots might be a lot safer.

Instead of individual officers being trusted with the decision of when lethal force is appropriate, that might eventually - following successful and safe deployment of thse robots - be transferred entirely to robot operators or supervisors thereof.

With full video recording of every fatality available for potential review by oversight bodies and courts.

Officers carrying only non-lethal weapons like tasers and low powered gauss rifles.

Not the most uplifting advancement in technology we've seen and there is potential for it to go badly, but we're inclined towards cautious optimism on this one.

[ Main Image: Robocop. Credit: MGM via IMDb.com. ]

References

Lovelace, Ryan (December 1, 2022). Robocops? San Francisco police to use killer robots. The Washington Times.