The Massachusetts State Police recently recruited a new member to the department: a robot dog.
The artificial canine comes from Boston Dynamics, the maker of Spot, a four-legged machine that can trot around like a dog. In September, the company began renting out the technology as a potential tool for law enforcement and other industries.
It turns out Spot has already seen some action as a potential crime-stopping canine. In August, the company began leasing a single Spot machine to the local state police department's bomb squad division.
The news comes from a public records request the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts made. However, the group has a more dystopian outlook on Spot and fears the same technology could one day be misused or even weaponized. "We just really don't know enough about how the state police are using this," ACLU director Kade Crockford told the public radio station WBUR.
Mass. State Police got to use @BostonDynamics' Spot the robot dog for three months this year. That's raising questions about what kind of policies there should be about how police can use robots. https://t.co/SVTjc0J2bJ pic.twitter.com/px22Ooj5Yr — ally jarmanning (@allyjarmanning) November 25, 2019
According to WBUR, state police used Spot in two real-life incidents, in addition to testing. The four-legged machine was specifically used as a "mobile remote observation device" to supply images of hazardous situations to police officers stationed away at a safe distance.
Boston Dynamics itself has envisioned Spot acting as a scout for law enforcement agencies. The machine can not only walk up stairs, but also open doors when fitted with a robotic arm. On top of this, Spot can also withstand physical abuse.
However, Boston Dynamics is refraining from creating machines that can hurt people. The company told the publication Inverse it has agreements in place to prevent clients from using Spot to "physically harm or intimidate people."
"We are producing at such a small scale at this point that we're very close to our customers, [so] we can make sure we're selling to people who we believe share the same interest and vision for the way that we imagined the robot being used," Boston Dynamics vice president Michael Perry reportedly said.
Still, don't be surprised if more police departments begin trying out Spot, which will only draw more scrutiny to the technology, and likely spark calls for transparent policies on their use. The ACLU notes the public is only learning about Spot's use as a law enforcement tool in Massachusetts thanks to a public records request.