The New York Police Department said Thursday it will stop using the "Digidog," a four-legged robot occasionally deployed for recon in dangerous situations. NYPD officials confirmed in a statement it had terminated its contract and will return the dog to vendor Boston Dynamics. Last December, the agency leased the Digidog, nicknamed Spot, for $94,000. John Miller, the police department's deputy commissioner for intelligence and counterterrorism, told The New York Times that the contract was "a casualty of politics, bad information, and cheap sound bites." Miller bemoaned the role of bad press in the backlash, but in many ways the NYPD's own actions were a blueprint for how not to introduce new tech.

New York City councilmember Ben Kallos says he "watched in horror" last month when city police responded to a hostage situation in the Bronx using Boston Dynamics' Digidog, a remotely operated robotic dog equipped with surveillance cameras. Pictures of the Digidog went viral on Twitter, in part due to their uncanny resemblance with world-ending machines in the Netflix sci-fi series Black Mirror. Now Kallos is proposing what may be the nation's first law banning police from owning or operating robots armed with weapons. "I don't think anyone was anticipating that they'd actually be used by the NYPD right now," Kallos says. "I have no problem with using a robot to defuse a bomb, but it has to be the right use of a tool and the right type of circumstance."

Of the 14 drones that will be used, 11 are DJI Mavic Pro quadcopters, a smaller device that can be deployed quickly for tactical operations. Two DJI M210 RTK quadcopters will be used for search and rescue missions. These are larger, weather-resistant drones with a high-zoom camera, thermal imaging capabilities and 3D mapping. The NYPD will also have one DJI Inspire 1 quadcopter, which will be used for training and testing purposes.