Robot cops or Robocop’s may soon patrol the streets after police in the United States requested machines to execute dangerous criminals. San Francisco police chiefs advocated utilising remote-controlled robots to apprehend offenders in exceptional instances.
The proposal brings us closer to the future cops immortalised in the 1987 science fiction blockbuster Robocop. If the risk of loss of life is imminent, US cops seek to deploy lethal force by robots. Opponents have forewarned of a dismal future.
Another approach would be to tie explosives to a robot and then use it to blow up a suspect, as was done in Dallas in 2016. According to a draught policy from the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD), robots will only be utilised as a lethal power opportunity when the threat of death to associates of the officers or the public is immediate and outweighs any other force option available to SFPD.
