San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Privacy advocates concerned over use of robot police dogs
HONOLULU — If you’re homeless and looking for temporary shelter in Hawaii’s capital, expect a visit from a robotic police dog that will scan your eye to make sure you don’t have a fever.
That’s just one of the ways public safety agencies are starting to use Spot, the bestknown of a new commercial category of robots that trot around with animallike agility.
The handful of police officials experimenting with the fourlegged machines say they’re just another tool, like drones and simple wheeled robots, to keep emergency responders out of harm’s way as they scout for dangers. But privacy watchdogs — the human kind — warn that police are secretly rushing to buy the robots without setting safeguards against aggressive, invasive or dehumanizing uses.
In Honolulu, the police department spent about $150,000 in federal pandemic relief money to buy their Spot from robotics firm Boston Dynamics for use at a governmentrun tent city near the airport.
“Because these people are houseless it’s considered OK to do that,” said Jongwook Kim, legal director at the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii. “At some point it will come out again for some different use after the pandemic is over.”
Acting Lt. Joseph O’Neal of the Honolulu Police Department’s community outreach unit defended the robot’s use. He said it has protected officers, shelter staff and residents by scanning body temperatures between meal times at a shelter where homeless people could quarantine and get tested for COVID19. The robot is also used to remotely interview individuals who have tested positive.
Late last year, the New York Police Department starting using Spot after painting it blue and renaming it “Digidog.“It went mostly unnoticed until New Yorkers starting spotting it in the wild and posting videos to social media. Spot quickly became a sensation, drawing a public outcry that led the police department to abruptly return Digidog to its maker.
“This is some Robocop stuff, this is crazy,” was the reaction in April from Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman. He was one of several New York politicians to speak out after a widely shared video showed the robot strutting with police officers responding to a domesticviolence report in Manhattan.
The company that makes the robots, Boston Dynamics, says it’s learned from the New York fiasco and is trying to do a better job of explaining to the public — and its customers — what Spot can and cannot do.
Michael Perry, vice president of business development at Boston Dynamics, said the company’s acceptable use guidelines prohibit Spot’s weaponization or anything that would violate privacy or civil rights laws.
There are roughly 500 Spot robots now in the wild. Perry said they’re commonly used by utility companies to inspect highvoltage zones and other hazardous areas.