Honolulu police used a robot dog to police a homeless plague camp

Law enforcement agencies are just loving spending tax dollars on Boston Dynamics' horrifying robo-dog, Spot, to test out in increasingly tasteless, abjectly dystopian scenarios. Recently, the NYPD proudly trotted out its own $94,000 quadrupedal dog-bot for street patrols, only to terminate its contract with Spot's makers barely two months later following New Yorkers' collective "Fuck this shit" response. Now, renewed inquiries are detailing somehow even more horrifying usages -- Honolulu police employed their own $150,045 federally funded Spot to "take body temperatures, disinfect, and patrol the city's homeless quarantine encampment" during the COVID-19 pandemic. Costly thermometer -- "As for its use helping Honolulu combat COVID-19, the city's spending data says Spot was purchased to take people's temperatures at HPD's tent city for homeless people," reported the Honolulu Civil Beat back in January, "In other words, its ostensible use is as a thermometer, according to the city's spending justification, though HPD says it can do more." "The only question the city council asked of HPD [during a January hearing] was whether the robot could be used to crack down on Honolulu's fireworks problem," added Motherboard in an update earlier today.