Blake Dowling
First things first, the movie RoboCop has not aged well.
The other day, I saw a snippet; it could be one of the worst flicks ever, despite seeming very cool in 1987.
But let’s talk about real police officers.
Does anyone remember the story about Gainesville police officer Bobby White?
White responded to a call of a neighborhood disturbance and parlayed the situation into an opportunity to not only assist some local teens but goes on to start a not-for-profit to help neighborhoods around our state and even get hoops legend Shaquille O’Neal involved.
A couple of years ago, I reached out to White on social media and have followed his good works ever since.
As we well know, not all interactions between law enforcement and civilians go as planned. But as a society, what can we do to help? What tools can we bring to the market to help everyone?
Florida International University decided to make their own RoboCop a while back to try and help. They called him Telebot and he was a remote-controlled robot, and despite a cool idea it never went anywhere.
Meanwhile in Silicon Valley, SRI International developed a robot this year that is actually an extension of the police vehicle. Called a “GoBetween,” the robot scoots over to the car of someone that has been pulled over and begins the conversation.
GoBetween holds a screen on a mechanized chassis, where the officer is shown and asks for ID and registration. The citizen can present it to the robot for approval. Both parties are protected from the possibility of a confrontation from a situation that might go out of control.
SRI is pitching the concept to several law enforcement offices — but no takers (yet).
The stats in this video are grim, according to SRI, 16,915,140 motorists are pulled over each year, 195,000 have physical force used on them and 4,488 officers are assaulted.
Seems like we could do better, doesn’t it?
Meanwhile, in Pasco County, a local developer rolled out an automated security officer named Deputy Metro. It was reported on the news several times, spooking people who think Skynet had finally taken over.
This little motorized bad boy (or girl, not quite sure about robot gender identity) rolls around on patrol looking for issues. If a problem is 
spotted, Deputy Metro alerts authorities ASAP.
It is like a smart, mobile security camera made by a company called Knightscope.
Don’t be surprised to see them increasingly in malls and neighborhoods in the near future. A case study last year out of Atlanta praises the Knightscope device, bringing incidents to zero at an industrial complex — saving them lots of cash.
I am a big fan of law enforcement, they keep us protected from threats and is available at all hours. I have volunteered (thanks Literacy Volunteers of Leon County for all you do) with our local police chief in our community; I know they are doing their part to try and make sure everything is being done to keep us all safe
But there are always new and innovative ideas to try and the ones mentioned here are all pretty awesome.
All that is certain is that RoboCop was a terrible film but the idea of a robot police force could be great for everyone. Earlier this year, India has already sworn in its first robot officer. Time for the USA to catch up.
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Blake Dowling is CEO of Aegis Business Technologies in the great, glorious (and really hot) state of Florida. He can be reached at [email protected].
