Police in Oakland, California, are reportedly exploring the option of using robots equipped with a device that could be deployed to fire live shotgun rounds against suspects in emergency circumstances.
“Yes, we are looking into that and doing more research at this time,” Oakland Police Lt. Omar Daza-Quiroz told The Intercept in a report detailing the debate between Oakland police and a city oversight council on whether to use deadly force via robots during certain emergency circumstances.
The report described a Sept. 21 Oakland Police Commission subcommittee meeting that included a discussion on accessories that police robots use, such as a “percussion actuated non-electric disruptor,” known as a PAN disruptor, that sometimes deploys a blank shotgun shell or pressurized water while the device operator stands at a safe distance.
Daza-Quiroz told the committee that officers make sure a blank round is in the device when Jennifer Tu, a fellow with the American Friends Service Committee and Oakland Police Commission subcommittee member, asked if “a live round” can “physically go in” and “what happens if a live round goes in?”
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Colorado bomb squad robot gets a hand going under police tape during closures due to a suspicious package.
(Paul Aiken/Digital First Media/Boulder Daily Camera via Getty Images)
“Yeah, physically, a live round can go in,” Daza-Quiroz said. “Absolutely, and you’d be getting a shotgun round.”
Daza-Quiroz was then asked by Commissioner Jesse Hsieh if the police department plans to use live rounds in the device.
“No,” Daza-Quiroz said before adding that there are potential scenarios where that could be a necessary move.
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“I mean, is it possible we have an active shooter in a place we can’t get to? And he’s fortified inside a house?” Daza-Quiroz said. “Or we’re trying to get to a person.”
The civilian commission expressed skepticism over the idea, which police say has never been used since they introduced robots in 2011.
“It’s a lot easier to pull out a rifle or a gun and shoot someone than to put a live round into this thing,” Hsieh said. “But I think we are all concerned about the dystopian sort of universe where a robot sneaks into our room and shoots us, which I know is not the intention but is certainly a scary thought and where our mind goes.”
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Officers from the New York Police Department’s emergency services unit operate a remote-controlled robot on a street near the United Nations building.
(Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images)
Daza-Quiroz told the commission that the department did not want to include language prohibiting a robot’s use of deadly force “because what if we need it for some situation later on?”
The plan to include language allowing police to use deadly force via robots has reportedly been put on hold, but police are exploring the idea. The Intercept reported that the two sides agreed that the robots will only be allowed to deploy pepper spray for the time being.
Police in Oakland, California, are reportedly exploring the option of using robots equipped with a device that could be deployed to fire live shotgun rounds against suspects in emergency circumstances.
(Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)
“We will not be arming robots with lethal rounds anytime soon, and if and when that time comes, each event will be assessed prior to such deployment,” Daza-Quiroz said.
The Oakland Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
Police in Dallas, Texas, used an explosive device attached to a robot to kill a suspect in a coordinated sniper attack that killed five officers in 2016, which is believed to be the first time law enforcement used a robot to kill a suspect.
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“We cornered one suspect, and we tried to negotiate for several hours. Negotiations broke down, we had an exchange of gunfire with the suspect,” Dallas Police Chief David Brown said at the time. “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.”
