NYPD Not Sharing Enough Info Despite Surveillance Tech Law govtech.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from govtech.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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A not-so-friendly four-legged friend briefly joined the New York City Police Department this year, shocking New Yorkers in viral videos when it was deployed in response to a hostage situation in the Bronx, and later in a public housing building in Manhattan.
The tool – a 70-pound robot made by the company Boston Dynamics that is capable of transmitting video, sound and two-way communication – sparked an outcry about an overreach in the kinds of police surveillance that New Yorkers are exposed to.(The device was first tested and deployed by the NYPD last year.) Police have touted the so-called “digidog” for its ability to evaluate the safety of a scene, such as a hostage situation, and make officers aware of any potential threats before going in themselves.Facing scrutiny of the tool, department officials have countered that robots have been used to assess dangerous situations and diffuse bombs for decades.
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The New York Police Department said Thursday it will stop using the âDigidog,â a four-legged robot occasionally deployed for recon in dangerous situations. NYPD officials confirmed in a statement it had terminated its contract and will return the dog to vendor Boston Dynamics. Last December, the agency leased the Digidog, nicknamed Spot, for $94,000.
John Miller, the police departmentâs deputy commissioner for intelligence and counterterrorism, told
The New York Times that the contract was âa casualty of politics, bad information, and cheap sound bites.â Miller bemoaned the role of bad press in the backlash, but in many ways the NYPDâs own actions were a blueprint for how not to introduce new tech. And, for activists, how to effectively agitate for banning unwanted technologies.
The NYPD’s 70-pound robotic dog, already criticized as a creepy-looking surveillance tool, was bought without notifying the city, according to Comptroller Scott Stringer
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AMONG THE most pernicious aspects of the range of surveillance technologies available to the average police force is how they can render the visible invisible. For instance, you would notice if a police officer walked down your street every day, writing down the licence plates of every car. A police department would have to decide that assigning an officer to that task is worth the time and manpower. But automatic number-plate readers (small, flat cameras attached to the hood or boot of police cars) do the same thing, and unless you know what they look like, you would probably never notice them yet they can compile a granular record of everywhere you drive.