Mayor Adams’ administration spent $222,000 this summer to procure 14 so-called “throw bots” for the NYPD, adding to the department’s increasing use of robotic technology in law enforcement.
The devices, which are used by several U.S. military branches and allied forces, can withstand being dropped from 30 feet in the air onto concrete, according to the website of the manufacturer, Minnesota-based ReconRobotics.
An NYPD official said Wednesday the department’s Emergency Service Unit, which responds to various critical incidents, will use the new robots “in multiple ways, such as aiding responses to barricaded subjects, emotionally disturbed individuals, and other dangerous incidents, while increasing the safety of information gathering at the scene of an emergency.”
Mounted with audio and visual capabilities, the two-wheeled micro-robots are designed to be thrown into a dangerous situation to do reconnaissance. ReconRobotics boasts on its website it has supplied Ukraine’s military with the devices to help the country in its war against Russia.
On July 31, the company entered into a contract to supply the NYPD with 14 of the throw bot devices, according to procurement records reviewed by the Daily News. The records show the Department of Citywide Administrative Services bought the bots on the NYPD’s behalf, spending $222,616.
DCAS, which occasionally purchases equipment for other city agencies, referred comment to the NYPD.
Mack Trainor, ReconRobotics’ CEO, said his company has provided the NYPD with robot technology before, most recently in 2019, but that the July purchase was the first under Adams’ administration.
In an interview, Trainor echoed the NYPD official in saying the robots provided under the new contract are expected to be used by the department in a broad range of scenarios, including everything from bomb scares and reconnaissance missions during hostage situations to scoping out a residence before executing a warrant. ReconRobotics contracts mainly with militaries and federal agencies, but the firm counts some other local police agencies as clients besides the NYPD, Trainor said.
“You get a 911 call and there’s a broken window, do you want to climb in there and see what’s going on or throw a robot in to see what’s going on?” he told The News. “You don’t want to stick your nose in there, you want to send a robot in.”
The purchase of the throw bots comes as Adams has made increasing use of cutting-edge technology a hallmark of his administration.
Under Adams, city agencies have drastically expanded its use of drones, including the Emergency Management agency deploying them to blast out warning messages about flooding to New Yorkers in low-lying areas when Tropical Storm Debby rolled in last month.
The administration has also deployed robots for various law enforcement purposes, like dispatching a 4-foot surveillance robot to patrol the Times Square subway station and bringing back the NYPD’s controversial “digi-dog.”
Civil rights advocates have criticized the administration’s robot efforts, questioning the utility of the devices and saying they pose an invasion of privacy to New Yorkers.
Albert Fox Cahn, a civil rights attorney who leads the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, argued Wednesday the new throw bots fit into the broader pattern of what he described as “flashy but ultimately useless” technology purchased by Adams’ administration.
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