Police in Oakland, California, are seeking permission from city officials to load lethal shotgun rounds into their bomb-defusing robots, raising concerns from civil rights and technology activists.
During a series of meetings in September between the Oakland Police Department and a civilian oversight council, officers raised the possibility of arming their $280,000 Northrop Grumman Remotec Andros Mark 5-A1 robot, a 900-pound remote-controlled vehicle used in bomb threats and other high-risk situations.
