Robot police dog joins New York City's police force

Critics will have a close eye on what the new devices get up to, as Ayshah Tull reports

A robotic dog has joined New York City's police department to take on high-risk situations such as hostage standoffs from this summer.

Digidog is one of three high-tech devices unveiled in a sealed-off Times Square on Tuesday, along with a GPS tracker for stolen cars and a cone-shaped security robot.

Amid concerns over the information the devices could collect, police commissioner Keechant Sewell said they will be rolled out in a "transparent, consistent" manner.

The city's first robot police dog was leased in 2020 by former Mayor Bill de Blasio, but the contract for the device was cut short after critics derided it as creepy and dystopian.

Current mayor Eric Adams, however, said he will not bow to anti-robot dog pressure.

“Digidog is out of the pound,” Mr Adams, a former police officer, said. “Digidog is now part of the toolkit that we are using.”

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An NYPD Officer demonstrates the star chase pilot, which will latch a GPS on to a stolen car. Credit: @NYCMayorsOffice/Twitter

“A few loud people were opposed to it and we took a step back,” he added. “That is not how I operate. I operate on looking at what’s best for the city.”

Mr Adams spelled out the type of situations in which the remote-controlled, 32-kilogram Digidog will be deployed.

“If you have a barricaded suspect, if you have someone that’s inside a building that is armed, instead of sending police in there, you send Digidog in there,” he said.

“So these are smart ways of using good technologies.”

What are the other two devices?

The tracking system called StarChase will allow police to launch a GPS tag that will attach itself to a stolen car so that officers can track the vehicle's location.

The New York Police Department's pilot programme for using the system will last 90 days, officials said.

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A K5 Autonomous Security Robot will patrol the Subway in New York City. Credit: AP

Meanwhile the Autonomous Security Robot, which Mr Adams compared to a Roomba - a robot hoover - will be deployed inside the Times Square subway station in a seven-month pilot program starting this summer, police officials said.

The device, used in shopping centres and other locations for several years, will at first be joined by a human partner.

Do we need these devices?

Civil libertarians and police reform advocates have questioned the need for the high-tech devices.

“This latest announcement is just the most recent example of how Mayor Adams allows unmitigated overspending of the NYPD’s massively bloated budget," said Ileana Mendez-Penate, programme director of Communities United for Police Reform.

“The NYPD is buying robot dogs and other fancy tech while New Yorkers can’t access food stamps because city agencies are short-staffed, and New Yorkers are getting evicted because they can’t access their right to counsel.”

Albert Fox Cahn, executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, said: “The NYPD is turning bad science fiction into terrible policing. New York deserves real safety, not a knockoff RoboCop."

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