A lawmaker has suggested police consider deploying “robot cops” in Hong Kong to help deal with situations when officers have to use “hand to hand combat.”
Great idea, Business and Professionals Alliance lawmaker Jeffrey Lam.
If science fiction has taught us anything, it’s that robots, with their super machine strength, are great at hand-to-hand combat.
RoboCop kills 21 people in the classic 1987 action flick, according to the internet, though, admittedly, he used guns and was technically a cyborg.
Lam, however, didn’t go into detail about what the robots he was envisioning might be able to do.
Neither did he say how many guns, missiles, or arms-that-turn-into-chainsaws, they should have.
He made the suggestion yesterday during a Legco meeting with Police Commissioner Stephen Lo, according to RTHK.
During the meeting, Lo told legislators that water cannons, recently acquired by the force, were due to arrive in the middle of the year. The cannons, L0 said, would be used “cautiously,” RTHK reported.
But everyone has water cannons these days, noted Lam, before suggesting robots.
“Water canons and tear gas are rather commonplace elsewhere. How can you balance the protection of front-line officers? Would you consider introducing robot cops?” Lam asked.
According to RTHK, though Law didn’t go into technical specs, he did say robots could be helpful in situations “that require front-line officers to conduct hand-to-hand combat.”
The police chief did not say whether the idea was being considered.
Jokes and sci-fi references aside, robots cops are actually becoming thing on the mainland.
Reports in 2016 introduced the world to AnBot, a 1.5-metre tall robot, equipped with a taser, that had begun patrolling Shenzhen airport.
While last year, police in Beijing unveiled a “luggage-sized” robot to help catch traffic offenders on the capital’s highways.
