Some Citizens Are Concerned About New Robotic Patrols in NYC

cageymaru

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New York City has begun experimenting with allowing robots to patrol areas. Rosie the robot has 5 cameras, thermal imaging, artificial intelligence, self-driving car technology, analytics and is directly connected to law enforcement. Her job is to observe people walking on the streets, record license plate and cellphone serial numbers, detect heat in objects, and of course patrol a certain neighborhood. Knightscope says that the robots so far have caught an accused sexual predator, robbery suspect and vandals in the act.

The robotic protectors can see what you're doing and even talk back to you, but the machines created by a New Yorker have prompted serious privacy concerns, CBS2's Clark Fouraker reported Tuesday. The company said it costs between $6 and $12 an hour for a new robot to hit the streets. They're currently deployed in 16 states to come alongside local security teams to help reduce crime.
 
No but seriously, I'm all in favor of this to be honest. If someone has a warrant for arrest, I think they should be able to do everything in their power such as using cameras / computers to match faces of people that need to be arrested.
 
If you’re not doing anything wrong, no biggie. The problem these days is data being compromised on huge scales. And this is really penetrating.
 
It's coming.
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record license plate and cellphone serial numbers

I have an absolute and complete problem with this. I've never done anything that would put me on police "radar" for any reason, but this is still just an outright gross violation of privacy. What the actual FUCK are you people thinking supporting police state shit like this? This is the United States..Not the fucking USSR.
 
The license plates, if you are out in public, anyone can see that. I don't have any problem with those being recorded.

The cell phone serial number is different... why would they need that? Honestly, that's probably not a big deal, since I think they already track all calls made and from what tower anyway. If this robot can suck that out of the air, anyone can. The privacy issue isn't the robot or that it does that, it's that the transmission isn't encrypted, or some other protection for the data isn't already in place. That issue is the cell phone infrastructure and protocols. But all this really tells it, is that that device was closeby. Cells phones with GPS have been tracking you for years, how is this any different?
 
No but seriously, I'm all in favor of this to be honest. If someone has a warrant for arrest, I think they should be able to do everything in their power such as using cameras / computers to match faces of people that need to be arrested.

As an employer, I would like access to what potential candidates or workers are doing after hours. They represent my business even when they are not at work, and I feel I have a right to know any establishments or activities they frequent that are not in line with our brand. I would be willing to pay for this, and since these nice robots are run by private companies, they've made it easy to access this crucial business need via subscription and api key.

do you really think we are at all far from this? do you think we aren't mere year(s) away from this happening to your google account?
 
How will you prevent people from defacing or damaging an ADM?

Knightscope ADMs have several features including proximity sensors, escalating alarm stages and the like to protect the robots, but why give away all secrets here...

Knightscope Issues MIN42 Field Incident Report

Incident on July 17, 2017: A K5 Autonomous Data Machine (Machine Identification Number 42) was patrolling a local mixed-use development in Washington, D.C. when at approximately 2:13pm EDT the machine veered away from its patrol zone and made an unscheduled stop into a property water feature...

...

The Company asserts that developing state-of-the-art autonomous technology must be done in real-world environments. It is not commercially reasonable to be developed in constrained laboratory settings and is grateful for its clients’ ongoing understanding and support.


 
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If they're going to name it after the Jetsons robot, they need to make it sassy. Very sassy.
 
Humanity is devided into two groups in order for the enlightenment to happen one needs to be removed. The world is being moved to a single decision I think the lone gunmen really summed it up in the 911 episode that aired before 911.
 
Actually now that I have watched the video of these things rolling around... they look more like R2 units.

"Thank you, magic trash can!" 5000 midichlorian points to anyone who can name that quote.
 
No but seriously, I'm all in favor of this to be honest. If someone has a warrant for arrest, I think they should be able to do everything in their power such as using cameras / computers to match faces of people that need to be arrested.

People can have a warrant for their arrest due to fucking parking tickets. So someone missed a court date and now they're doing time, lost their job, all their shit, no money...for what?

No, I'm not OK with this at all. I love all the spying and prying they get to do to us but we don't get to see fuck all of theirs.
 
Here's a pick'em question. Would you rather a) robot with these features patrolling your neigbhorhood or b) police officers patrolling your neighborhood with body cameras that do the same exact things? And do note, the human would easily cost 10 times as much.

How I get 10x? Well $6/hr for the robot (we'll take the low end) x 24hrs x 365 = 52k/year, for a police officer, average salary in NYC is $90k/year, and considering most retire after only 20 years they are collecting pension + benefits for easily that amount of time afterwards (police union even says that a police officer will draw on average 2.2M in retirement), so lets just call it 200k/year average for each cop when you take into account all the retirement, health plans, etc (and that number is quite real, and doesn't even take into account overtime). Now great 200k/year for a cop, but a 24 hour day has 3- 8 hour shifts, so that's a total of $600k/year to have a SINGLE human patrolling the streets, double that if they work in pairs, and this takes the amount a cop makes right now, 10 years from now they most likely are going to cost more.

I mean since we're already at that point where you have "no expectation of privacy" on public streets, and apparently broadcasting your IMEI is also public domain, and apparently thermal vision does not violate privacy laws either, I mean we might as well go cheap with this.
 
What if I run into it with my car by mistake? Would that be an assault of an officer like a K9? How much longer before these start handing out tickets... you know they have to pay for it somehow.

I'm starting to think Demolition Man was spot on.
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Ignoring the concerns about a government robot vacuuming up information on citizens, who noted the cost? $6 to $12 dollars an hour to "patrol"? That's ludicrous. So, let's say it's out there for 16 hours a day, 6 days a week. $500 to $1,000???

Umm, where are they hiding the millions? Oh, and where and how does diblasio and his cronies get their payoffs?
 
Ignoring the concerns about a government robot vacuuming up information on citizens, who noted the cost? $6 to $12 dollars an hour to "patrol"? That's ludicrous. So, let's say it's out there for 16 hours a day, 6 days a week. $500 to $1,000???

Umm, where are they hiding the millions? Oh, and where and how does diblasio and his cronies get their payoffs?

And what exactly do you think cops are being paid? More than this trash can I’m betting. And if this trash can eliminates a few beat cops off of payroll the cost pays for itself.
 
Eventually as technology improves they will be able to give people citations. There are a lot of laws out there and an AI will be merciless unlike a human police officer who can be lenient or even ignore minor infractions.
Do I get to see the source code with documentation when I'm ticketed, so I can challenge the ticket? Fair is fair, right?
 
Eventually as technology improves they will be able to give people citations. There are a lot of laws out there and an AI will be merciless unlike a human police officer who can be lenient or even ignore minor infractions.

I doubt this at least in our lifetime. Police officers have legal standing and robots do not so it would not be legal.

My city years ago tried this crap with red light cameras. They gave out auto citations for right on red without stopping citations and it wound up in court. To get around that they put a police officer at the control center of the cameras but it ended up being challenged so many times they scrapped the system entirely.

Ultimately I don’t see these robots doing more than monitoring and escalating to law enforcement later when they evolve. Defense attorneys need to watch these closely as these things will be used in court to convict people.
 
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