San Francisco police will be allowed to use remote-controlled robots capable of killing, despite fierce opposition from civil liberties groups.
Opponents of the move said it would lead to the further militarization of a police force already too aggressive with poor and minority communities.
The San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) says it has no pre-armed robots and has no plans to arm robots with firearms.
However, the department could deploy robots equipped with explosive charges “to contact, incapacitate or disorient a violent, armed or dangerous suspect” when lives are at stake, SFPD spokeswoman Allison Maxie said.
“Robots equipped in this way would only be used in extreme circumstances to save or prevent further loss of innocent life,” she said.
The police currently have a dozen ground robots, used to assess bombs or perform reconnaissance in low-visibility environments.
However, explicit permission to use robots as a type of force was required after a new California law took effect this year requiring police and sheriff departments to inventory military-grade equipment and request approval for their use.
A federal program has long distributed grenade launchers, camouflage uniforms, bayonets, armored vehicles and other surplus military equipment to aid local law enforcement — a source of significant controversy.
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Tuesday’s debate lasted more than two hours, with members from both sides accusing the other of fearmongering.
Board chairman Shamann Walton, who voted against the proposal, said it made him not anti-police, but “pro-people of color.”
“We are continually asked to do things in the name of increasing guns and opportunities for negative interaction between the police department and people of color,” he said. “It’s just one of those things.”
San Francisco’s office of the public defender sent a letter Monday to the board saying that granting police “the ability to kill community members from a distance” goes against the city’s progressive values.
The office wanted the council to reinstate language prohibiting police from using robots against anyone in an act of force.
Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, who voted in favor of the policy, said he was troubled by rhetoric portraying the police department as untrustworthy and dangerous.
“I think bigger questions arise when progressives and progressive politicians start to view the public as if they’re anti-police,” he said.
Across the San Francisco Bay, the Oakland Police Department dropped a similar proposal after public backlash.
The first time a robot was used to deliver explosives to the United States was in 2016, when Dallas police dispatched an armed robot that killed a hidden sniper who had killed five officers in an ambush.
