This past Tuesday, officials of the New York City Police Department announced that they will have a shocking new addition to the police force, a dystopian robotic K-9 unit that has been affectionately named “Spot,” as crime rate spike across the city and the department continues to have issues with the managing of its extremely limited resources in an effective manner.
Officials for the city, which include both NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell and Mayor Eric Adams, revealed the new “Digidog” alongside two additional new pieces of tech that the department now plans to roll out in the city, making the argument that this advanced equipment is highly crucial for the safety of the residents.
“Digidog is out of the pound,” announced the mayor, as reported by The New York Times.
Authorities have claimed that the unit would be able to assess high-risk situations and “undoubtedly” lead to the saving of lives, both of the public and of police officers. The dog would be used to assist in the de-escalation of situation when it comes to hostage negotiations, counterterrorism incidents, and others, as needed, reported an article from NBC.
“Instead of sending police officers in there, you send Digidog,” stated Adams.
Officials have reportedly claimed that two robot dogs would come to a stagging cost of $750,000 for the city.
“To safeguard our modern city in a forward-looking world, it is essential that our officers are equipped with the tools, training, and technology necessary to do that job safely and effectively,” Sewell stated as part of a press conference on Tuesday morning in Times Square. “Throughout its history, our department has leveraged the latest available technology and pioneered ways to do our work.”
NEW – NYPD adds "robot dog" to force.pic.twitter.com/KAI4mEbwYz
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) April 11, 2023
Additional technology introduced earlier this week by city officials included a new device named StarChase. a new program that will let police track cars by making use of GPS-enabled devices that are attached to projectiles in order to locate ghost cars and cars sporting stolen plates.
“This is a game changer” noted the NYPD.
Officials with the city also chose to unveil the K5 Autonomous Security Robot pilot program, which is used to watch over confined areas both outdoors and indoors and give incident notifications in real-time to officers. Officers hope to make use of this new tech as soon as this coming summer.
“This is the beginning of a series of rollouts we are going to do to show how public safety has transformed itself…if we were not willing to move forward and use technology on how to properly keep cities safe, then you would not keep up with those who are doing harmful things to hurt New Yorkers,” stated Adams.
