Media outlets and local residents are trashing a proposal from San Francisco Police Department to integrate military-style robots into the force, calling the idea "laughable."
Police oversight groups have also urged the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to reject the SFPD's proposal. They argue it constitutes police militarization, despite the department saying it would not arm the robots, The Associated Press reported.
However, SFPD spokeswoman Allison Maxie noted the robots could be equipped with explosive charges "to contact, incapacitate, or disorient" dangerous suspects but only "in extreme circumstances to save or prevent further loss of innocent lives."
"The robots listed in this section shall not be utilized outside of training and simulations, criminal apprehensions, critical incidents, exigent circumstances, executing a warrant or during suspicious device assessment," a draft of the proposal read.
"Robots will only be used as a deadly force option when [the] risk of loss of life to members of the public or officers is imminent and outweighs any other force option available to SFPD," the draft continued.
Duke University Professor Sultan Meghji said Monday on Fox News' "Jesse Watters Primetime" that introducing the robots would be "an awful idea," declaring humorously that the department was "taking policy decisions from the 'Terminator' franchise."
"What are we going to do? Take their training and decision-making out of it and just have a bunch of robots do it?" Meghji asked.
"At the end of the day, it's a bunch of people who barely know how to change the ring tone on their iPhone making these kinds of decisions," Meghji continued. "Maybe they shouldn't be the ones doing it."
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