The huge robot police officer to whom the authorities of NY They were assigned to patrol the busy Times Square subway station He has received early retirement in just three months, and with more criticism than results.
The city’s mayor, Eric Adams, presented last year to the ‘K5 robot‘before the media as the future of the police surveillancebut the usual thing was to see the white android flanked by agents who were guarding it, when they were not encouraging the taking of photographs by curious onlookers.
As reported this Friday The New York Times‘K5’, who weighed 200 kilos and could not navigate stairs (his structure was similar to R2-D2 from Star Wars), spent part of his work period parked and charging batteries in an empty subway room, and a spokesperson Police confirmed that it has completed its pilot program.
The arrival of the machine, of the Knightscope brandcaused controversy among civil society organizations due to its ability to record in high definition and, above all, facial recognition, a technology which the mayor assured would not be used.
One of the complainants, The Legal Aid Society, redoubled its criticism in a statement after learning of the withdrawal of ‘K5‘: accused the mayor of “get distracted“applying”High-tech solutions to age-old problems” and considered the robot a “unnecessary expense“purposeless”legitimate” of security.
Last summer, that entity had asked the Administration and the Police to investigate the deployment of technologies surveillance under the command of Adams, which also included a dog robot DigiDog, in case it violated the laws of transparency and citizen privacy.
“The NYPD (Police) did not seek community input on the autonomous robot of Times Square, among other new surveillance expenses, as required by law. We will continue to fight to ensure that the NYPD meets basic requirements” of the law, said one of the entity’s lawyers, Shane Ferro.
Neither the Mayor’s Office nor the Police They wanted to clarify all the money that the robot’s brief life has cost: “US$9 an hour, nine an hour. I know you want to write about how we waste money, but I won’t give you that pleasure. We rent it for 9 dollars an hourAdams said last September.
Source: Gestion
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