
 First robot cop to join Dubai Police by May, official says - titusblair
http://gulfnews.com/news/uae/emergencies/first-robot-cop-to-join-dubai-police-by-may-official-says-1.1993347
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jacquesm
There's some pretty scary stuff in that article:

> We planned for a security system for the future of the city to tackle future
> crimes. By 2025, Dubai will be one of the best five cities in the world on
> security level,” he added.

> By 2030, all police buildings will be 50 per cent self-power-generated and
> the country will build a DNA data bank. “By 2030, there will be no
> mysterious or unknown crimes in Dubai and the police will have the biggest
> DNA data bank in the country.”

> Meanwhile, Brigadier Khalid Nasser Al Razouqi, General Director of the Smart
> Services Department at Dubai Police, told Gulf News that the first police
> robot will join the force in May. “We are looking to make everything smart
> in Dubai Police. By 2030, we will have the first smart police station which
> won’t require human employees,” Brigadier Al Razouqi said.

If it wasn't on a reasonably reputable news source you'd think someone was
pulling a prank. But then again, these Sheiks, Emirs and their cronies will
only remain in power through the most draconian measures once the oil wealth
dries up and they need to move now if they don't want to end up roughly like
Nicolae Ceaușescu.

The cost of the police force will be a major factor if they want to stem the
tide so they're planning accordingly.

~~~
crdoconnor
>these Sheiks, Emirs and their cronies will only remain in power through the
most draconian measures once the oil wealth dries up and they need to move now
if they don't want to end up roughly like Nicolae Ceaușescu.

They've done pretty well at decoupling from reliance upon oil wealth in the
country by turning Dubai into a sort of playground-sanctuary for the super-
wealthy. Only ~30% of their GDP is oil/gas.

This appears to be part of that. Rich people like to feel secure in their
paradise.

~~~
jacquesm
A country size gated community.

~~~
danans
Point taken, but it's really more of a city-state isn't it?

~~~
jacquesm
Yes, but what Dubai does is leading for all of the UAE, it's 1/3rd of the
population and a very large part of the total wealth.

Abu Dhabi (Nominally the capital) is about 1 million inhabitants and Dubai
about 3, only a small fraction of all UAE inhabitants are citizens.

------
hwillis
I have to admit that I was one of the people who thought that when automation
came to the police force, it would come to SWAT first a la Chappie[1].
Bulletproof robots armed with nonlethal weaponry. No SWAT teams putting
infants in comas with flashbangs[2] or shooting people. Robots kick down the
door and taze criminals.

However it makes a lot more sense like this, as a cost saving measure. It
doesn't seem like these robots are meant to offer any real assistance. Rather
dystopically they apparently scan faces to look for fugitives. Still- the more
"routine" police work is automated, the better. Parking and speeding tickets
being automatic are better for everyone. Robot cops that can actually offer
assistance, particularly in many languages, would be great.

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyy7y0QOK-0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyy7y0QOK-0)

[2] [http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/22/us/georgia-indictment-flash-
ba...](http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/22/us/georgia-indictment-flash-bang-case/)

------
mysterydip
These kinds of advancements make me nervous, not because I'm a technophobe
luddite, but because I don't think the implications and side effects have been
thought through enough.

Of course the people making the decision to move forward do so with the
assumption that they will always have power/control over the situation so the
bad parts won't apply to them, but this may not be the case.

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lostcolony
I didn't notice a name. I hope they go for Enforcement Droid 1. Only 208
models to go by 2043 then.

~~~
wyldfire
Subtle RoboCop reference (this movie is now old enough that lots of HN-ers
probably haven't seen it). ED-209 [1] [2] is an AI-driven competitor to
RoboCop (cyborg/zombie).

"Your move, creep."

[1]
[http://robocop.wikia.com/wiki/Enforcement_Droid_Series_209](http://robocop.wikia.com/wiki/Enforcement_Droid_Series_209)

[2]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrXfh4hENKs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrXfh4hENKs)

~~~
mixmastamyk
"I'd buy that for a dollar!"

------
driverdan
This sounds like a PR move more than anything else. What exactly is it going
to do?

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SN76477
I do not understand this desire to endlessly fight crime. It is just the
nature of some people. Crime will never cease, fighting it with an iron fist
only prevents real problems from getting solved. Problems such as then
homelessness, the hungry. Solve those problems and crime will decrease
forever.

~~~
nxc18
Dubai was built on slave labor... I don't think anyone there cares at all
about homeless or hungry people, as long as they're in the outskirts or out of
sight.

Here's a quora link: [https://www.quora.com/To-what-degree-has-Dubai-been-
built-by...](https://www.quora.com/To-what-degree-has-Dubai-been-built-by-
slave-labor)

Google if you want a legitimate news source - I've been seeing articles since
at least 2009 covering this issue and there are even books.

------
bitwize
Any takers on when the first ED-209 event will take place?

Actually this reminds me of a kids' cartoon I used to watch called C.O.P.S.
(not to be confused with the Fox police reality show Cops). It was pretty
cyberpunk for a kids' show and centered around an elite team of cybernetically
enhanced police officers from the near future. In one episode, a city
councilman had agitated for beat cops to be replaced with AI robots called
Instant Justice Machines, presumably as a cost-saving measure. In reality he
was on the take from the local criminal organization, whose activities the
robots cheerfully ignored. Which highlights another failure mode of delegating
police duty to robots: how do we know their programming matches up with our
understanding of the law?

------
DarkKomunalec
I fear the future when rulers no longer need the loyalty of the police or
military, the last check on their power.

Such a future is not inevitable - the development and production of autonomous
human-hostile machines can and should be banned with the same fervour as
making biological weapons.

------
ShannonAlther
I'm skeptical that the robot will work as well as one might expect, but the
real gem in this article is that Dubai is building a DNA bank. Let's see how
_that_ pans out.

~~~
jacquesm
> Let's see how that pans out.

You will know how well it works by who is _not_ in it.

------
spraak
Reminds me of this story:

> Scott Simon notes the plight of a British citizen who has been sentenced to
> four years in prison in Dubai for having a microscopic amount of marijuana
> on the bottom of his shoe.

[http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1884201...](http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18842015)

------
hasbot
This was written in March and it's June 1st now. So, did it happen?

Found this: [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06/01/first-robotic-
cop...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06/01/first-robotic-cop-joins-
dubai-police/)

------
rajadigopula
May be it's Time to get revise this -
[https://willrobotstakemyjob.com/33-3051-police-and-
sheriffs-...](https://willrobotstakemyjob.com/33-3051-police-and-sheriffs-
patrol-officers)

------
magoghm
"The announcement was made by Bin Sultan during a presentation at the 11 Best
Police Practices Forum held in Dubai." "Brazilian football legend Ronaldinho
also attended the forum" WTF?

------
Raphmedia
Photo 2 in the slider

> A delegate trying his hand at virtual spiner training game at the 11th
> International Symposium for Best Police

It shows somebody with a Vive on his head and a big old sniper in his hands.
Any more infos on that?

------
thrillgore
First tip to employing robot drones in your police force: Don't make them
vulnerable to being pushed over.

I seriously doubt that thing would get up on its on recognizance, after a nice
shove.

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mac01021
They might have to work on it's face and appearance a bit. It doesn't look
very commanding or authoritative.

~~~
jacquesm
Nothing a baseball bat can't fix. Of course they will put re-arranging these
robots external features at the same level as 'assaulting an officer'.

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wehadfun
What does the robot do? Can it write tickets, arrest people, shoot, direct
traffic?

Kind of a hollow article.

~~~
gmarx
terrible article and I suspect it was written by a robot. You see this more an
more with articles in mainstream press. The article consists of a catchy title
with 8 paragraphs that restate the title different ways and never provide the
detail a human reader would want

~~~
mythrwy
Meh, maybe they are catering to their main user base, the bot scrapers?

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jmcdiesel
Can smart police be smart if they enforce ignorant and unjust laws?

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HillaryBriss
bring on the robot criminals

