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New York Mayor Unveils New Technology Including Robots To Be Used In Crime Fighting

On Tuesday, April 11th, 2023, Mayor Eric Adams 鈥� of New York City, presided over an event at Times Square. The event was hosted by the New York Police Department (NYPD) and it was held for the department to announce and unveil new technology.

As reported by CBS News, Mayor Adams, while at the event, said that he is actively combing the world for the latest technology to put the NYPD at the forefront of crime fighting. The event saw the launch of StarChase, the K5 Autonomous Security Robot (ASR), and the return of 鈥淪pot鈥� the Digidog.

StarChase is a GPS tracking technology that can be used to tag and track vehicles. It was disclosed that the police department (NYPD) had signed a $19500 temporary subscription for seven such StarChase devices. The trackers are launched from a gun-shaped device onto a moving vehicle or object enabling the department to track it.

Mayor Adams while discussing the technology said, 鈥淲hat we want to do is to mitigate as many high-speed chases in the city as possible.鈥�

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The K5 Autonomous Security Robot (ASR) is a 5-foot-tall robot manufactured by Knightscope. The department has a seven-month contract with the manufacturing company. This includes 3 months to ready the technology as well as four to test the technology.

In that duration, this will cost the city $12,250. In the earlier part of the testing period, the K5 ASR will be accompanied by an actual police officer to monitor it.

Another piece of technology launched on the day was 鈥淪pot鈥� the Digidog. Spot is a robotic dog and as per the New York Times, onlookers at the event compared it to R2-D2 from 鈥淪tar Wars鈥� or a Dalek from 鈥淒octor Who.鈥�

For a sum of roughly $750,000, the city is acquiring two of these robotic dogs. Coming merely days after an announced budget cut in the city, there were concerns about where the funds for these dogs were coming from. It was announced that the dogs would be acquired using asset forfeiture funds from the department.

As of now, the dogs will not be used during routine patrols in the city. Instead, they will be only put in action during life-threatening situations including probable bomb threats in the department鈥檚 jurisdiction.

As with any new technology, there were concerns raised. A more recurring one involves privacy and what information the robots (both dog and K5) would collect. To answer this, Mr. Keechant Sewell, the New York police commissioner said that neither of them would be equipped with facial recognition technology.