NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – An NYPD security robot will soon patrol the Times Square subway station as the city looks increasingly to tech to help prevent and respond to crime, officials said Friday.
The 5-foot-tall cop—a Knightscope K5 fully autonomous security robot filled with cameras and emblazoned with "NYPD"—will patrol the busy station every day between midnight and 6 a.m. as part of a trial that will last two months, Mayor Eric Adams said at a news conference with NYPD and MTA officials.
"Welcome to New York City, K5, and welcome to the NYPD," Chief of Transit Michael Kemper said.
The robot will spend its first two weeks training and mapping out the station. It will roam the main station area, not on the subway platforms, and will be accompanied by a uniformed officer at all times.
Officials said it's all about taking existing tech, like surveillance cameras, and "placing it on wheels" to better patrol the transit system.
K5 is equipped with cameras to record video, but it won't record audio or use facial recognition, officials said.
Kemper added that "any video collected will adhere to the same guidelines as any other technology in the NYPD toolbox."
K5 also features a button that subway riders can press to speak with a live person 24/7 to report a crime, ask questions or address concerns.
Adams acknowledged "New Yorkers have strong opinions on technology," but he said K5 will operate within the law and be reevaluated after the trial period.
"At the end of the two months, we will assess the robot's effectiveness and decide whether and how we continue to use it moving forward," the mayor said.
Still, Adams insisted the NYPD has to adopt new tech like robots and drones if it wants to keep up with criminals in the 21st century. He said New Yorkers "are going to feel the presence of technology that will continue to keep them safe."
The K5 robot reportedly costs about $60,000 to $70,000 a year to run.
The Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.), a New York-based privacy and civil rights group, released a statement panning the "knockoff Robocop" and expressing concern about how the K5's video will be used.
“This may be the dumbest drone yet,” said the group's director, Albert Fox Cahn. “There is absolutely no benefit to installing a roving camera in one of the most heavily surveilled places on the planet. We've already blanketed Times Sq. with cameras, and it's absurd to think another drone will help. Despite the Mayor's promises, the images from this system can easily be fed into the NYPD's existing facial recognition system, compounding the risk these biased algorithms pose to BIPOC New Yorkers. I just wish that the Mayor would start focus on actually protecting public safety instead of wasting more time and money on surveillance gimmicks.”