Posted BY: The Daily Fetched
San Francisco leaders voted to allow the city's police department to use lethal force with robots in emergency situations.
"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," City Supervisor Rafael Mandelman wrote on Twitter.
On Tuesday, San Francisco leaders voted 8-3 in support of the new policy.
According to a police department spokesperson, the San Francisco Police Department has 17 robots, but none are armed with guns, and the department has no plans to do so. The department could deploy robots equipped with explosive charges "to contact, incapacitate, or disorient violent, armed, or dangerous suspect."
"Robots equipped in this manner would only be used in extreme circumstances to save or prevent further loss of innocent lives," SFPD spokesperson Allison Maxie said in a statement.
Civil liberty groups and others claimed using robots would militarize the police force.
"We are living in a dystopian future, where we debate whether the police may use robots to execute citizens without a trial, jury, or judge," Tifanei Moyer, a senior staff attorney of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of San Francisco Bay Area previously told Mission Local.
"No legal professional or ordinary resident should carry on as if it is normal," Moyer added.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed's office said using robots to enforce the law "strikes a good balance between protecting lives and establishing guardrails to prevent misuse."
"The Mayor supports policies that allow police officers to quickly and safely respond to situations that involve a risk of violence to the public, and this includes tools such as live video or robotics technology. These tools should be available to peace officers to employ to save lives," the mayor's office told Fox News Digital on Wednesday morning.
"If the police are called to serve in a situation where someone intends to do harm or is already doing harm to innocent people, and there is the technology that can help to end the violence and save lives, we need to allow police to use these tools to save lives," the statement continued. ]
Supervisors amended the proposal to specify that officers could use robots only after using alternative force or de-escalation tactics.
Only a few high-ranking officers could authorize using robots to use deadly force.
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