The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has called on the Massachusetts State Police to explain how it is using robot dogs.
The ACLU is questioning the Massachusetts State Police how and where the robot dogs were being used. For the past three months, the state police have been testing the Spot robot dogs from Boston Dynamics alongside some of its officers.
These robots are believed to have been used for several live incidents as well as training scenarios. Earlier this year, Boston Dynamics uploaded a video, captioned "MA State Police," showing the robots opening doors and entering buildings.
The ACLU released a statement saying: "All too often, the deployment of these technologies happens faster than our social, political, or legal systems react." In the letter, the rights group stated that it wanted more "transparency" about the use of the robots, the ways in which they would be used and which officers would be deployed with them.
According to the ACLU, there is a need for regulations on the use of the robots to make sure they did not violate established civil rights and liberties or lead to racial injustice. The group also wanted to know whether the robots will be deployed with weapons.
Massachusetts State Police officials responded that the robots were being used as a "mobile remote observation device" to examine suspicious devices or locations that might pose danger to human officers. They claimed that the robots had worked with the organization's bomb squad and had helped with two "incidents" but no details were given.
David Procopio, a spokesman for the state police force, said: "Robot technology is a valuable tool for law enforcement because of its ability to provide situational awareness of potentially dangerous environments."
A spokesman for Boston Dynamics said there were explicit clauses in the lease agreement that required the robots not be used to "physically harm or intimidate people".
