When Dallas police used a bomb-carrying robot to kill a
sniper, they also kicked off an ethical debate about technology's use as a
crime-fighting weapon.
In what appears to be an unprecedented tactic, police rigged
a bomb-disposal robot to kill an armed suspect in the fatal shootings of five
officers in Dallas. While there doesn't appear to be any hard data on the
subject, security experts and law enforcement officials said they couldn't
recall another time when police have deployed a robot with lethal intent.
The strategy opens a new chapter in the escalating use of
remote and semi-autonomous devices to fight crime and protect lives. It also
raises new questions over when it's appropriate to dispatch a robot to kill
dangerous suspects instead of continuing to negotiate their surrender.
"If lethally equipped robots can be used in this
situation, when else can they be used?" says Elizabeth Joh, a University
of California at Davis law professor who has followed U.S. law enforcement's
use of technology. "Extreme emergencies shouldn't define the scope of more
ordinary situations where police may want to use robots that are capable of
harm."
Dallas Police Chief David Brown defended his department's
decision. "Other options would have exposed our officers to great
danger," he said.
Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings applauded Brown for making
"the right call" and said he would have no qualms about resorting to
the same strategy in the future. "When there's no other way, I think this
is a good example," he said. "The key thing is to keep our police out
of harm's way."
ROBOTS, SOLDIERS AND POLICE
Police have been using such robots for decades to dispose of
suspected bombs and in hostage standoffs and fires. Meanwhile, militaries
around the world have come to rely on their robotic friends to disable
improvised explosive devices — a need that only increased with the U.S.
occupation of Iraq following its 2003 invasion.
Many of the robots joining police forces are coming from a
U.S. Department of Defense program transferring surplus equipment from the
military. These exchanges have provided law enforcement agencies with robots
such as Packbot made by Endeavor Robotics, the Talon from QinetiQ and the
MARCbot made by Exponent.
But military experts said ground-level robots are rarely
used to kill the enemy. Their main purpose is to detect and defuse bombs to
save lives. Military robots are "fairly clunky and used best for
reconnaissance rather than the offensive," said Tom Gorup, an infantry
veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan who's now an official at the IT-security firm
Rook Security.
Airborne robots are another matter. The U.S. military has
sent remotely piloted drones to kill hundreds of people, including civilians,
in counterterror attacks launched overseas since 2009, based on estimates
released last week by the Obama administration.
HOW IT (PROBABLY) WORKED
The robots working for police departments across the country
range in size from devices as small as a dog bone to others as large as a
truck. Some are little more than a mechanical arm mounted onto a vehicle and
equipped with a video camera and two-way audio communications, according to
William Flanagan, a retired deputy police chief from New York's Nassau County
who now does law enforcement and technology consulting. The most versatile
robots can climb stairs and navigate other tight spots, such as this one made
by Icor Technology.
Many models used by police are about the size of a backpack.
Flanagan speculated that police in Dallas probably equipped
their robot with a low-powered explosive — possibly one similar to what bomb
squads use to blow up suspicious packages — that would only disable what's
closest to it.
Dallas police didn't respond to a request for further
information about their use of the robot.
MACHINE VS. HUMAN
Robotics expert Peter W. Singer, of the New America
Foundation, said the killing marked the first instance he's aware of in which
police have used a robot to lethal effect. But when he was researching his 2009
book "Wired for War," a U.S. soldier told him troops in Iraq
sometimes used surveillance robots against insurgents, he added in an email
Friday.
William Cohen, a former Exponent employee who helped design
the MARCbot, said that robot was built to save lives instead of ending them.
Although he was relieved the killing of the armed suspect in Dallas assured
that no other police officers or bystanders would be harmed, Cohen says he's
worried about what might happen next.
"It opens a whole new set of questions of how to deal
with these kinds of situations," Cohen said. "Where are the police
going to draw the line when trying to decide between continuing to negotiate
and doing something like this?"
-AP
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