Police remote-controlled robots have been around for years now. In addition to cameras, most police robots have tools used to disable explosive devices, improvised or otherwise, from a safe distance away. And some have more lethal features that go boom.
San Francisco Police Department has provoked a hysterical reaction (go figure) in recent days. They’ve sought formal approval for the use of 12 gauge shotgun shells in one of those “disruption” tools used against barricaded violent bad guys.
Never mind that these police robots could use ballistic “disruptors” for, uh, disrupting two-legged threats in addition to actual bombs if exigent circumstances demanded it. The SFPD proposal outraged those in the media who have generated some breathless reporting (weapons of war!) to sell clicks and some dead tree pulp.
In this case, it’s the UK Daily Mail . . .
The San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) is proposing to use robots to kill suspects in ‘rare’ circumstances – with the force’s 12 bots set to assist officers with deadly force and ‘ground support’.
The new policy proposal is to be debated next week by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors Rules Committee and will define how the SFPD is allowed to use its military-style weapons.
One way the machines can cause deadly harm is by attaching a PAN disruptor device – which uses shotgun shells – to the robot. This can then fire bullets at the suspect.
Of course, the woke social justice warriors who run the city’s government about soiled themselves at the very idea. Because guns are icky. And so are “guns” mounted on robots.
The draft policy has been scrutinized over the past several weeks by supervisor’s (sic) Aaron Peskin, Rafael Mandelman and Connie Chan, who make up the committee.
Peskin, the chair of the committee, initially attempted to limit the SFPD’s authority over the robot’s (sic).
‘Robots shall not be used as a Use of Force against any person,’ Peskin wrote.
The robot is only a tool, Mr. Peskin. There’s a person using that tool. In the same way, it’s not the gun that kills, it’s the person who pulls the trigger.
A number of years ago, the local bomb squad came to a Guns Save Life meeting and showed off their (at the time) fairly new robot. As gun people, we immediately noticed a pair of what looked like 12 gauge barrels mounted on the robot.
Sure enough, those two devices were one of the tools onboard for rendering explosive devices inert. And yes, the bomb squad explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) guys could load them with buckshot or whatever other loads they desired if circumstances warranted it.
For bomb disposal, they preferred the “mineral water bottle” tool which uses an explosive charge in a bottle of water to create a shockwave that forms a “blade” of water that, believe it or not, will slice through steel. That’s how a water bottle wrecks an IED.
For the skeptics out there, here’s an example of the “MWB” in action.
As for the PAN disruptor, which is what lay-people might identify as a remote-control shotgun of sorts, EOD people like to use water or other “projectiles” to minimize risk and limit collateral damage around the suspicious device they’re deactivating.
But it wouldn’t be hard at all to slip a round of 00-buckshot or a rifled slug into their robot for two-legged threats. While firing those projectiles might damage their PAN disruptor from the recoil, it surely beats risking additional lives to take out a determined bad guy.
But allowing their local police to safely take out a violent criminal predator might be more than the San Francisco Board of Supervisors can stomach.
