New York City’s police have discontinued the use of their surveillance robot within the city’s subway tunnels, as reported by The New York Times yesterday Friday, just five months after deploying it for patrols, considered by some as the “technological jewel” for securing subway stations, while others saw it as nothing more than a “trash can on wheels.”
Regular users of New York’s subway, whether residents or visiting tourists, will no longer see the “K-5” robot, which commenced operations at the city’s largest subway station, Times Square, in September last year. Mayor Eric Adams, a former police captain elected on a platform to combat insecurity, confirmed this development.
The New York Times indicated that the robot has been placed in storage, while a spokesperson for the NYPD clarified to the French news agency that the machine “completed its trial phase in the subway.”
The robot, equipped with multiple cameras and an emergency call system, faced several malfunctions related to battery charging. It was also revealed that a police officer had to constantly accompany it and had difficulty navigating the steep subway staircases, as reported by the French news agency.
Albert Fox, president of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, known for his opposition to electronic surveillance and technology, sarcastically commented, “I’ve said before that it’s a trash can on wheels, but even the wheels didn’t work.” Fox expressed surprise at “the expenditure on such machines while crime rates are declining, especially at a time when the city’s mayor has cut budgets for several municipal positions.”
Mayor Eric Adams has shown a keen interest in new technologies such as facial recognition, drones, GPS, and robotic dogs to combat insecurity. While crime rates in New York rose after the pandemic in 2021 and 2022, they noticeably declined last year, particularly in the subway.
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