Former cop and self-declared "geek" Eric Adams held a press conference in Times Square today to let the city know how much he loves police robots. New York City's mayor presided over a press conference alongside police officials to discuss a pair of pilots designed to increase the city's surveillance. "I've stated this from day one, even when I was on the campaign trail: I'm a computer geek. I believe that technology is here," the mayor said at the top of his remarks. "We can't be afraid of it, and as [NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell] stated, transparency is the key."

A spokesperson for the SFPD said that the department's robots -- most of which are large units originally developed to disarm potential bombs in war zones -- could be equipped with explosives "to contact, incapacitate, or disorient [a] violent, armed, or dangerous suspect" in "extreme circumstances to save or prevent further loss of innocent lives." Robots have already been used in this way in the US before. In Dallas in 2016, police used a bomb disposal robot to kill an individual who had shot and killed five police officers at a rally.

Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com. A suspect accused of shooting at golfers on a Dallas golf course and hiding from authorities for hours inside a drainage ditch was subdued and taken into custody Wednesday with the help of a police robot. Kevin Knowles, 31, was taken into custody in connection with the shooting at Grover C. Keeton Golf Course, FOX 4 Dallas-Fort Worth reported, citing police. Knowles allegedly crashed a stolen car near the golf course before approaching a group of players on the fourth hole, the report said.

Over the past couple of weeks, many were shocked to learn that the police in San Francisco want to use lethally armed robots. But the real surprise is that the proposal took so long. After all, six years ago the police in Dallas used a lethally armed robot to kill a barricaded sniper who had fatally shot five officers. The Dallas police generally received praise for their decision, even as it drew concerns about a new police tactic deployed without any prior guidelines in place. Even if San Francisco ultimately decides to shelve its approval of lethally armed police robots, that won't end the matter.

In a sharp reversal, San Francisco officials voted Tuesday against a controversial policy that would have allowed police robots to use deadly force. The move comes after the city's board of supervisors voted 8-3 on Nov. 29 to allow high-ranking officers to authorize the use of remote-controlled robots to potentially kill suspects. "The people of San Francisco have spoken loud and clear: There is no place for killer police robots in our city," Supervisor Dean Preston said in a statement. "We should be working on ways to decrease the use of force by local law enforcement, not giving them new tools to kill people," Preston said. The "killer robots" were said to only be used in "extreme circumstances," Robert Rueca, a San Francisco Police Department spokesperson, said at the time of the approval.

In late November, San Francisco's Board of Supervisors has approved a proposal that would allow the city's police force to use remote-controlled robots as a deadly force option when faced with violent or armed suspects. The supervisors voted 8-to-3 in favor of making it a new policy despite opposition by civil rights groups, but now they seem to have had a change of heart. During the second of two required votes before a policy can be sent to the mayor's office for final approval, the board voted 8-to-3 to explicitly ban the use of lethal force by police robots. As San Francisco Chronicle notes, this about-face is pretty unusual, as the board's second votes are typically just formalities that echo the first ones' results. The San Francisco Police Department made the proposal after a law came into effect requiring California officials to define the authorized uses of their military-grade equipment.

San Francisco leaders voted to allow the city's police department to use potentially lethal robots in emergency situations. "Under this policy, SFPD is authorized to use these robots to carry out deadly force in extremely limited situations when risk to loss of life to members of the public or officers is imminent and outweighs any other force option available," City Supervisor Rafael Mandelman wrote on Twitter. San Francisco leaders voted 8-3 on Tuesday in support of the new policy. The San Francisco Police Department has 17 robots, but none are armed with guns, and the department has no plans to do so. The department could deploy robots equipped with explosive charges "to contact, incapacitate, or disorient violent, armed, or dangerous suspect" during emergency situations when lives are at risk, according to a police department spokesperson.

I'm disturbed by the fact that law enforcement agencies are increasingly using robots for neutralizing threats, surveillance, and hostage situations. Maybe I've just seen RoboCop too many times, but I'm wary of machines making crucial, life-or-death decisions--especially given how often actual human officers abuse their authority. Do I have any kind of moral obligation to obey a police robot? Hollywood has not been particularly optimistic about robots in positions of authority. RoboCop is just one example of the broader sci-fi canon that has burned into our minds the tragic consequences of relinquishing critical tasks to inflexible machines--robots whose prime directives are honored with a literalism that can turn lethal, who can blast a person to death but are confounded by a set of stairs.

The Huntingdon Park police near Los Angeles has rolled out several robot police in public spaces around the city. However, reports and testimonies reveal that these autonomous police robots may not serve any purpose at all. The inefficiency of the supposed virtual police that secure the parks in Los Angeles (instead of actual human police officers) was highlighted when the Knightscope police robot ignored a distressed woman. A woman in a park near Los Angeles attempted to summon the futuristic police robot when a fight broke out in the area. Instead of responding to the distress call of the woman, the K5 model named "HP RoboCop," ignored her report and told her to "step out of the way," as earlier reported in NBC News.

Police robots, thrown through a broken window, could be used to distract suspects before police enter a room. The idea is to add a distracting device that produces a loud bang and a brilliant flash to small robots already used by many US police departments. Weighing about half a kilo, Throwbots can be tossed through windows or over walls and driven around to explore building interiors with video, audio and infra-red sensors.