Singapore police to use robots to search for "undesirable social behavior"

 Singapore police to use robots to search for "undesirable social behavior"

If you're wandering around Singapore soon, don't forget to say hello to this friendly (and snitchy) neighborhood robot.

Singapore's Home Team Science and Technology Agency (HTX) will deploy two robots called "Xavier" that, according to the agency, use cameras with a 360-degree field of view and analytics software to detect "undesirable social behaviors" in real time. As Business Insider reported, the robots are designed to detect activities such as smoking in public, violation of pandemic restrictions (i.e., groups of more than five people) and illegal street vending. Other behaviors the agency said the robots can detect include the use of motorized vehicles or motorcycles in pedestrian walkways and "improperly parked bicycles."

The Xavier robots travel a "patrol route preconfigured in advance by public officials," although they can deviate as needed to avoid hitting pedestrians or other obstacles. The plan is for the two robots to transmit reports of such activity to a central police center, in addition to confronting violators directly with warning messages. The first three weeks of deployment will begin Sept. 5 in Toa Payoh Central.

"Once Xavier detects any of the above cases, it will trigger real-time alerts to the command and control center, and display the appropriate message (depending on the scenario) to educate the public and deter such behaviors," the HTX explained in a statement. If necessary, the agency added, duty officers in the command center can "activate additional resources to respond to situations on the ground when necessary."

The robots can also be remotely controlled by agents present in the control center, who can also activate a two-way intercom that would allow them to speak directly to members of the public.

"The deployment of ground robots will help increase our surveillance and enforcement resources," Lily Ling, director of the Singapore Food Agency's Eastern Regional Office, said in the statement. "For example, policing illegal hawkers can be manpower-intensive, as officers need to be deployed in various areas of the island. The adoption of robotic technology can be used to enhance such operations and reduce the need for our officers to conduct physical patrols."

This is not Singapore's first robot experiment. In 2020, Singapore's National Parks Board and GovTech agency deployed a four-legged Boston Dynamics robot, of the famous "Spot" model, to roam the parks barking at people about social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic. Singapore authorities have also flown fleets of drones over the parks to give officials a "high vantage point" from which they could observe the number and density of visitors present.

Singapore has a stringent legal code that is often considered one of the strictest in the world. It tried to control the spread of the new coronavirus with far-reaching measures such as mandatory quarantines for visitors, a Bluetooth tracking system, business closures and border restrictions, with the aforementioned Spot robot playing a small but very conspicuous role. The virus eventually wreaked havoc there despite the emergence of more contagious variants and this summer health authorities switched from a policy of eradication to control.

As of Sept. 7, according to CNN, estimates from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine show that Singapore has had nearly 69,000 cases (though only 55 deaths). Singapore has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world, but, as CNN reported, an outbreak of the infectious Delta variant has stalled attempts to roll back pandemic restrictions and return a semblance of normalcy to daily life.

U.S. law enforcement has been increasing its use of aerial drones for years, raising myriad civil rights concerns. But their attempts to launch robot snitches on the ground have run into considerable controversy after police in Dallas, Texas, used a drone with a bomb in 2016 to kill a suspect who had just murdered five police officers. The NYPD purchased its own Spot robot, complete with a special arm that would allow it to open doors, but was forced to remove it from service thanks to negative public backlash and a subpoena from City Hall demanding to know how much money the police spent on this contract. Police departments across the U.S. have also begun using autonomous aerial drones that can fly themselves to conduct surveillance and respond to emergency calls.