As Biden Border Crisis Continues, US Robot Dogs Soon to Patrol Mexican Border Photo by U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. M. L. Meier.
February 19, 2022 | Paul Crespo
With President Biden’s border crisis continuing without any end in sight, four-legged “Robot Dogs” will soon be patrolling the U.S.-Mexico border, along with their human Border Patrol counterparts.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) says that these sci-fi looking robotic dogs, weighing about 100 pounds, are critical in patrolling the harsh American Southwest. Critics, primarily Democrats, aren’t happy with law enforcement using robots.
Many Democrats aren’t happy with using any law enforcement, but that’s a different issue.
Fox29 reports:
“The southern border can be an inhospitable place for man and beast, and that is exactly why a machine may excel there,” said DHS Science and Technology Directorate manager Brenda Long. “This S&T-led initiative focuses on Automated Ground Surveillance Vehicles, or what we call ‘AGSVs.’ Essentially, the AGSV program is all about…robot dogs.”
Reaction to the armed dogs has been mixed but police view them as just another tool.
“Due to the demands of the region, adding quadruped mechanical reinforcements is a smart use of resources. Despite the dangers, and maybe even using them as cover, there are many types of illegal activity that happen in the harsh border zones,” DHS said in a statement.
Police use of such robots is still rare and largely untested — and hasn’t always gone over well with the public.
Late last year, the New York Police Department starting using one of the robo-dogs after painting it blue and renaming it “Digidog.” It went mostly unnoticed until New Yorkers started spotting it in the wild and posting videos to social media. the robot dog in New York, which was created by robotics firm, Boston Robotics, quickly became a sensation, drawing a public outcry that led the police department to abruptly return Digidog to its maker.
The Democrat reaction was typical and expected.
Democrat U.S. Rep. Jamaal Bowman said in April of the NYPD robo-dogs: “This is some Robocop stuff, this is crazy.”
Bowman was one of several New York politicians to speak out after a viral video showed the robot trotting along with police officers responding to a domestic violence report at a public housing building in Manhattan.
Poster Comment:
Don't move, citizen.