Ride the Lightning

San Francisco Approves Plan for Lethal Police Robots

December 8, 2022

Update to today’s post:

DarkReading reported on December 7 that the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, which voted on November to 29 to allow the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) to use armed robots for lethal force, changed its mind. The board voted again to explicitly deny permission for deadly force and send the original bill back to committee.

Here is the original post:

As reported by The Daily on November 29, San Francisco has now approved a plan for lethal police robots. The robots would be armed with explosives and used against suspects as a last-resort option.

The final vote at a raucous hearing of San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors was 8-3.

The plan requires officers to at least evaluate the use of alternative force options or de-escalation tactics before deploying a robot and limits the decision to deploy robots to certain high-ranking police officials.

The San Francisco Police Department clarified that it would not seek to arm any of its robots with firearms but rather with explosives as an “intermediate force option” that could prove to be lethal.

The final language reads, “Robots will only be used as a deadly force option when risk of loss of life to members of the public or officers is imminent and officers cannot subdue the threat after using alternative force options or de-escalation tactics options, or conclude that they will not be able to subdue the threat after evaluating alternative force options or de-escalation tactics. Only the Chief of Police, Assistant Chief, or Deputy Chief of Special Operations may authorize the use of robot deadly force options.”

The wisdom of arming robots to use deadly force against humans, particularly in a non-military setting, has long been questioned. It has been six years since the Dallas Police Department used a bomb disposal robot to kill a sniper. Will this movement now gain steam?

We don’t, in my judgment, have a framework in place to determine what constitutes objectively reasonable force. The ACLU addressed the issue after the Dallas incident, but things have been quiet since then. Until now.

I saw another story which carried the subhead, “When you have a hammer, everything looks more like a nail.” I fear that’s true.

Sharon D. Nelson, Esq., President, Sensei Enterprises, Inc.
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