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ACLU made this request in August of 2019 [0] , guess it slipped notice back then. To be honest, they can be very unnerving o watch in action and for those who

ACLU made this request in August of 2019 [0] , guess it slipped notice back then. To be honest, they can be very unnerving o watch in action and for those who are video game fans; think Half Life series; they conjure up not so good images. Terminator series would likely be the most related that the public would freely associate with them, especially video on one of these dogs running across terrain. by default I have little issue with them, however with the recent focus on no knock raids and such I am loathe to give the police any tool which is more in line with military use. They already abuse the transfer of purely military vehicles to their forces and their SWAT teams long lost any relationship to traditional police [0] https://data.aclum.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/ACLU-Public-Records-Request-Robotics-MSP.pdf https://data.aclum.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/ACLU-Publi...

logfromblammo 7y ago
Or Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. Just stick a little hypodermic needle with a lethal dose of morphine onto its manipulator, and Spot slips easily into the role of the mechanical hound.
stebann 7y ago
We shouldn't be worried while police doesn't loose their connection with their people and treat cases properly according to the law, but now it seems that they're being taught to use force for whatever reason in most situations. It's not only a phenomena that could happens in totalitarian states or broken states, now it reaches all countries.
paulddraper 7y ago
Interesting. My reading of most HN threads has been in favor of more automation, objective verifiabilty, and technological use in law enforcement, e.g. body cams. Also strong condemnation of shoot-first-ask-later habits, which are inarguably more appealing when a person is at risk instead of an automaton. It would seem to be that those wanting police reform would be most interested in removing as much of the problematic human element as possible.
- akiselev 7y ago
  Most of the successful police reforms (that I'm aware of here in California) have revolved around community policing and getting back to that human element. The rest have been oversight based, like the police body cameras. Policing without infringing on rights is a very hard problem and I don't think many serious reformers see any one solution or ideology as sufficient on its own.

logfromblammo 7y ago

Or Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. Just stick a little hypodermic needle with a lethal dose of morphine onto its manipulator, and Spot slips easily into the role of the mechanical hound.

stebann 7y ago

We shouldn't be worried while police doesn't loose their connection with their people and treat cases properly according to the law, but now it seems that they're being taught to use force for whatever reason in most situations. It's not only a phenomena that could happens in totalitarian states or broken states, now it reaches all countries.

paulddraper 7y ago

Interesting. My reading of most HN threads has been in favor of more automation, objective verifiabilty, and technological use in law enforcement, e.g. body cams. Also strong condemnation of shoot-first-ask-later habits, which are inarguably more appealing when a person is at risk instead of an automaton. It would seem to be that those wanting police reform would be most interested in removing as much of the problematic human element as possible.

akiselev 7y ago
Most of the successful police reforms (that I'm aware of here in California) have revolved around community policing and getting back to that human element. The rest have been oversight based, like the police body cameras. Policing without infringing on rights is a very hard problem and I don't think many serious reformers see any one solution or ideology as sufficient on its own.