Dallas Police Chief David Brown defended Sunday his decision to take out a gunman who opened fire at a Black Lives Matter march with a tactical robot, saying he would do it again despite mutterings that the unprecedented move may have ushered in the era of “RoboCop.”
“I approved it. And I will do it again if presented with the same circumstances,” Chief Brown said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
He said the shooter, 25-year-old former Army reservist Micah Xavier Johnson, “was clear of mind, determined to hurt more officers. And without our actions, he would have hurt more officers. So, we had no choice, in my mind, but to use all tools necessary to end the standoff.”
After about two hours of failed negotiations, Dallas police sent a remote-controlled robot — a Northrop Grumann Remotec Model F-5 — with a claw-and-arm extension strapped with a one-pound C4 plastic explosive against Johnson, who had refused to surrender after shooting and killing five police officers and wounding seven during the demonstration.
Chief Brown’s move has triggered a debate over the morality of lethal police force by robots at a time of heightened risk to officers.
For the most part, however, the chief has won support for the improvised move, given that the armed gunman told police he had explosives and continued to pose a threat to officers at the scene.
New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton said he Sunday he stood behind the chief.
“I approve of the chief’s decision down there to use that robot so as not to put any additional officers’ lives at risk in that circumstance,” said Chief Bratton on ABC’s “This Week.” “It will be reviewed, as all shooting incidents are, use of force by police need to be reviewed. And it is something that needs to be done in a very public way.”
Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said he said he supported Chief Brown’s decision “completely, because it was the safest way to approach it.”
“We talked to this man a long time. And he threatened to blow up our police officers,” said Mr. Rawlings on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “We went to his home. We saw that there was bomb-making equipment later. It was very important that we realized that he may not be bluffing. So, we ask him, do you want to come out safely or do you want to stay there and we are going to take you down? And he chose the latter.”
Those who have second-guessed the chief’s call to use the robot to kill Johnson as he was holed up in a building at El Centro College have asked why he didn’t use the device for non-lethal purposes.
“Well, the era of robocop has begun,” said Techdirt editor Mike Masnick in a Friday post referring to the 1987 hit movie about an officer who was refitted as a cyborg after being killed in the line of duty.
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“This isn’t faulting the Dallas Police Department for its actions last night. But, rather, if we’re going to enter the age of robocop, shouldn’t we be looking for ways to use such robotic devices in a manner that would help capture suspects alive, rather than dead?” Mr. Masnick asked.
CNN’s Jake Tapper asked the chief Sunday whether “some sort of riot gas been used, instead of something that killed the gunman?”
Chief Brown responded that he doesn’t “give much quarter to critics who ask these types of questions from the comforts and safety away from the incident.”
“You have to be on the ground and try and determine — I have got former SWAT experience here in Dallas. And you have to trust your people to make the calls necessary to save their lives. It’s their lives that are at stake, not these critics’ lives who are in the comforts of their homes or offices,” Chief Brown said.
He added, “That’s not worth my time to debate at this point. We believe that we saved lives by making this decision. And, again, I appreciate critics, but they’re not in on the ground, and their lives are not being put at risk by debating what tactics to take.”
Tactical robots using lethal force have been employed by the U.S. military but not previously by domestic police, who have mainly employed robots for purposes such as bomb disposal and inspecting suspicious packages.
Peter W. Singer, a strategist on military and technology for New America, said that while the Dallas incident represents “an important first use of robots in a lethal way by police,” it’s too early to say whether the practice will spread to other departments.
“The concerns driving the ’killer robots’ debate center on whether we can prevent the unleashing of self-operating robots on the battlefield, for which militaries around the world are beginning to establish plans and doctrines,” Mr. Singer said in a post on CNN. “The debate is driven by a concern that such a future might cause both greater civilian harm and a lack of accountability.”
In Dallas, however, the decision to use the robot was ad hoc and “doesn’t appear to have risked civilian harm or raised accountability concerns of the kind that motivate the killer robots debate,” Mr. Singer said.
Chief Bratton added that, “the reality is that the technology is available to us.”
“There were innocent civilians shot during that situation in Dallas,” Chief Bratton said. “So we will review it. We’ll take a look at it. That capability is there. But it is the first time that type of action has been initiated here in the United States and it deserves to be reviewed.”
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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