There's some pretty scary stuff in that article:<p>> 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.<p>> 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.”<p>> 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.<p>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.<p>The cost of the police force will be a major factor if they want to stem the tide so they're planning accordingly.
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.<p>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.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyy7y0QOK-0" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyy7y0QOK-0</a><p>[2] <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/22/us/georgia-indictment-flash-bang-case/" rel="nofollow">http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/22/us/georgia-indictment-flash-ba...</a>
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.<p>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.
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.
Any takers on when the first ED-209 event will take place?<p>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?
I fear the future when rulers no longer need the loyalty of the police or military, the last check on their power.<p>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.
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 <i>that</i> pans out.
Reminds me of this story:<p>> 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.<p><a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18842015" rel="nofollow">http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1884201...</a>
This was written in March and it's June 1st now. So, did it happen?<p>Found this: <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06/01/first-robotic-cop-joins-dubai-police/" rel="nofollow">http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06/01/first-robotic-cop...</a>
May be it's Time to get revise this - <a href="https://willrobotstakemyjob.com/33-3051-police-and-sheriffs-patrol-officers" rel="nofollow">https://willrobotstakemyjob.com/33-3051-police-and-sheriffs-...</a>
"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?
Photo 2 in the slider<p>> A delegate trying his hand at virtual spiner training game at the 11th International Symposium for Best Police<p>It shows somebody with a Vive on his head and a big old sniper in his hands. Any more infos on that?
First tip to employing robot drones in your police force: Don't make them vulnerable to being pushed over.<p>I seriously doubt that thing would get up on its on recognizance, after a nice shove.