The Dallas Shooting and the Advent of Killer Police Robots

In the mourning over the murders of five police officers in Dallas, and relief that the standoff had ended, one unusual detail stuck out: the manner in which police killed one suspect after negotiations failed. "We saw no other option but to use our bomb robot and place a device on its extension for it to detonate where the suspect was," Chief David Brown said in a press conference Friday morning. "Other options would have exposed our officers to grave danger. The suspect is deceased … He's been deceased because of a detonation of the bomb." That use of a robot raises questions about the way police adopt and use new technologies.