There's been a great expansion in the technology that is available to law enforcement,

Last week, on September 8th, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's department successfully used a remote-controlled bomb squad robot to snatch a rifle out from under an armed and violent suspect. The standoff between the suspect and an armored SWAT team lasted for more than six hours, but concluded without a single shot fired. "The robot was a game changer here," Capt. Jack Ewell told the LA Times. "We didn't have to risk a deputy's life to disarm a very violent man."

The robot was a Remotec Andros Mark V-A1, which the Dallas Police Department purchased in 2008 for 151,000. Several Dallas police officers had already been killed, and the shooter told negotiators he wanted to kill a few more. They had him cornered, but he kept firing shots, so Dallas Police Chief David Brown instructed officers to find a creative way to end the standoff. Fifteen minutes later, they sent a robot to deliver a handful of explosives that quickly killed the suspect. This event, which took place last Thursday, was the first known instance of police using a lethal robot in American history.

Amid the protests against police brutality spreading across the country, Dallas is still haunted by the death of five officers at the hands of a lone gunman. However, some were concerned by the manner in which the police ended a standoff with 25-year-old Micah X Johnson, the suspect behind the shooting. The standoff ended early Friday morning when the police detonated a bomb robot, killing the suspect. The Dallas Police Department defended its action saying that the bomb was "a last resort." In a statement published Saturday, the Dallas Police Department said, "When all attempts to negotiate with the suspect, Micah Johnson, failed under the exchange of gunfire, the Department utilized the mechanical tactical robot, as a last resort, to deliver an explosion device to save the lives of officers and citizens." Police used the Remotec, Model F-5 with claw and arm extension and an explosive device of C4 with a "Det" cord.

Havoc broke out at a peaceful protest against police violence and racism in Dallas on Thursday evening when a sniper opened fire, shooting 12 officers and 2 civilians. Police cornered the suspect, now known to be Micah Johnson, in a downtown parking garage around 11 p.m. As negotiators tried to talk him out of the parking deck over a series of hours, news came out that five of the officers had died. Negotiations broke down; gunfire was exchanged between police and Mr. Johnson. Then, around 3 a.m., police reported that the sniper was dead.

After sniper fire struck 12 police officers at a rally in downtown Dallas, killing five, police cornered a single suspect in a parking garage. After a prolonged exchange of gunfire and a five-hour-long standoff, police made what experts say was an unprecedented decision: to send in a police robot, jury-rigged with a bomb. "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," Dallas Police Chief David Brown told a news conference Friday. "Other options would have exposed our officers to grave danger. The suspect is deceased as a result of detonating the bomb."

Members of the Boston Police bomb squad demonstrate a robot named "Slick" during an active shooter drill at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. June 12, 2016. Experts say Dallas police executed an unprecedented move Friday morning, when officers used a robot-delivered bomb to engage a suspect accused of fatally shooting five police officers and injuring seven others during a protest. The shooting started toward the end of a non-violent protest over recent fatal police shootings. Police engaged in a standoff with the suspect, who was later identified as Micah Xavier Johnson, after he barricaded himself inside a parking garage. Following lengthy negotiations with the police, Johnson told officers he had planted bombs in the area.

In the wake of post-protest shootings that left five police officers dead and seven others wounded, along with two civilians, police traded gunfire last night with a suspect inside a downtown Dallas parking garage. Eventually, law enforcement sent a "bomb robot" (most likely shorthand for a remotely controlled bomb disposal robot) armed with an explosive, to the suspect's location, then detonated the explosive, killing the suspect. "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…other options would have exposed our officers to great danger," said Dallas Police Chief David O. Brown. "The suspect is deceased as a result of detonating the bomb." Repurposing a robot that was created to prevent death by explosion clearly contrasts with the way these machines are normally used. Bomb disposal robots are routinely used to minimize the potential of harm to officers and civilians when disarming or clearing potential explosives from an area.

A bomb disposal robot has, it seems, for the first time disposed of a human being. In the hours following Thursday night's mass shooting of 12 Dallas police officers (5 dead and 7 injured), police cornered the suspect, now identified as Micah X. Johnson, in El Centro College. After a lengthy negotiation during which the suspect, according to the Dallas Police Department, said he was upset about the recent police shootings of black men and wanted to kill white people, talks broke down and the police and the suspect exchanged gun fire. "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," Dallas PD Police Chief told reporters on Friday morning. SEE ALSO: Dallas police slammed for tweeting picture of'suspect' Police detonated the explosive device, killed the suspect and may have just changed law enforcement forever.

Still, the fact remains that the police deployed a robot with the intent to kill a suspect, which some say sets a worrying precedent about lethal force that's completely separate from the ethical considerations of shooting a gun. "The legal framework for police use of force assumes human decision-making about immediate human threats," Elizabeth Joh, a professor of law specializing in policing and technology at the University of California Davis, told HuffPost. "What does that mean when the police are far away from a suspect posing a threat? What does'objectively reasonable' lethal robotic force look like?" Joh recognizes that this wasn't a complex killing machine, but she argues its deployment indicates how easy it would be for police to launch more advanced weaponry without oversight.