SAN FRANCISCO--Last month, the San Francisco Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals deployed a 400-pound robot to help combat a sharp rise in car break-ins and other crime at one of its animal shelter facilities here.
On Thursday, the Knightscope K5 was benched amid complaints that it was being used to harass the neighborhood's sizable homeless population.
The shelter's officials said in local news reports that break-ins and discarded drug needles had decreased at the Mission District campus after the robot was deployed. The white, Weeble-shaped robot rolled along snapping photos that it relayed to human guards.
"It's scaring a lot of homeless, because they think it's taking pictures of them," said Moon Tomahawk, an unemployed 38-year-old man who frequents the homeless encampments nearby.
On Thursday, the San Francisco SPCA issued a statement that it was pulling the plug on the K5 after the facility became the target of vandalism and threats over complaints the homeless were being victimized. "We piloted the robot program in an effort to improve the security around our campus and to create a safe atmosphere for staff, volunteers, clients and animals. Clearly, it backfired."
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The SF SPCA decided to use the robot as a test after a rash of crimes, including break-ins twice last summer at its animal shelter, said spokeswoman Krista Maloney.
"This was a major safety concern, particularly for our overnight veterinary staff," Ms. Maloney said. "Furthermore, many staff members and volunteers have filed complaints about damage to cars and harassment they experienced in our parking lot when leaving work after dark."
Philip Cravens, a volunteer for the animal shelter, attributed at least some of the crime to homeless camps that have proliferated in the neighborhood in recent years, as they have around many other parts of San Francisco.
Mr. Cravens, 64, said he could see a sharp drop in the number of homeless people loitering there after the robot started its patrols.
"I'm sure it's deterred them," said Mr. Cravens as he walked a pit bull rescue named J.J. on Thursday.
I think it's too bad the SPCA caved in, although I understand their reasoning.
Clicking through to see the pic makes this story even more amusing based on the images of kittens and puppies all over the ""400-pound robot."
Amusement aside, Kent, have you see any good data on just how much of the modern crime drop in the last three decades --- especially w/r/t/ property crimes --- could and should be attributed to private (often tech-based) self-help? I suspect tech in various ways has contributed to crime reductions, and I am hopeful this will continue (although it seems smart gun tech still is not helping on the gun crime front).
There has been a gigantic increase in public and private surveillance in the last 25 years. Try finding a place outside your home that you're not on someone's camera somewhere.
When people know they're being watched, they tend to behave better.
When they behave better, we get less crime.
The other largely non-policy factor contributing to the crime decrease has been the aging of the Baby Boomer bulge out of their most crime-prone years.
But there are at least four policy-related drivers of the crime decrease: More police; more pro-active and computer-assisted policing strategies; more law and guidelines discipline in sentencing; and a related overall increase in incarceration (with its incapacitating and, probably, deterrent effects).
The theory about lead paint has taken a hit from the fact the violent crime has been on at least a two-year surge, but I'm unaware of any upswing 20 years ago in the use of lead-based paint in toddlers' bedrooms.
The theory that poverty causes crime took at least as big a hit from the Great Recession (roughly late 2007 - early 2010). Employment, GDP and standards of living fell, but crime also continued to fall, and would persist in its decline for another four years.
Thanks, Bill, though I would be especially eager to see efforts to break out statistically the various impacts of various forces you cite with respect to violent, property and drug crimes. That is a big task, and I am not sure anyone has tried or readily can disaggregate the particulars. But the recent seeming divergence of violent/property crimes (violent going up, property holding steady or going down) might provide the basis for good analyses in the years ahead.
On a slightly different topic, I would love your take and/or Kent's) on the DEA/DOJ opioid corporate prosecution story emerging from WaPo and 60 minutes today:
"‘We feel like our system was hijacked’: DEA agents say a huge opioid case ended in a whimper"
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/mckesson-dea-opioids-fine/2017/12/14/ab50ad0e-db5b-11e7-b1a8-62589434a581_story.html
Prosecuting someone criminally for what he didn't do is rare and difficult. The WaPo story doesn't seem to grasp that.