Who let the dogs out? The NYPD did, that’s who.
In a press event on Tuesday, the New York Police Department announced that it has revived its quadruped dog robot “Digidog,” to fight crime. Mayor Adams said the dog can “save lives.”
“I believe that technology is here; we cannot be afraid of it,” he said during Tuesday’s press conference. “A few loud people were opposed to it, and we took a step back — that is not how I operate. I operate on looking at what’s best for the city.”
Also known as Spot and designed by Hyundai-owned Boston Dynamics, Digidog is built to operate in situations not favorable to human personnel. It’s also been touted as a public safety tool, though that label has proven controversial.
In 2020 and 2021, the NYPD used the Digidog for reconnaissance during a gunman situation and during a home invasion, respectively. After critics blasted the use of the Digidog over concerns about surveillance and the weaponization of the police, the NYPD quickly terminated its contract with Boston Dynamics.
In this same vein, Adams has received backlash for reviving the technopooch. The Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (STOP) denounced Mayor Adams for the move. “The NYPD is turning bad science fiction into terrible policing,” Albert Fox Cahn, STOP’s executive director, says in a statement. “New York deserves real safety, not a knockoff robocop. Wasting public dollars to invade New Yorkers’ privacy is a dangerous police stunt.”
City officials say that the NYPD will acquire two robot dogs for a sum of $750,000, and that they will only be used during life-threatening situations and not for surveillance.
