The Tricky Ethics of Knightscope's Crime-Fighting Robots

In November, the San Francisco SPCA deployed a 5-foot-tall, 400-pound robot to patrol its campus. The SPCA, a large complex nestled in the northeast corner of the city's Mission neighborhood, has long dealt with vandalism, break-ins, and discarded needles in its surrounding parking lots. Fearing for the safety of its staff, the SPCA figured the robot could work as a deterrent, a sort of deputy for its human security team. The robot came from a Silicon Valley startup called Knightscope, whose growing family of security machines work as slower, more disciplinarian versions of self-driving cars. SPCA used their K5 robot, which is good for outdoor use.