Kans. City OKs $340K Robot Dog for Police After Narrow Council Vote

Wichita police will buy a single robot dog for $340,000, the Wichita City Council decided in a narrow 4-3 vote Tuesday.

The vote was initially delayed last month, so council members could learn more about the police department’s technology at its March 24 workshop meeting.

The robot, also known as Spot, was created by Boston Dynamics originally for use in manufacturing sites. The robots have since begun to be used by police departments to resolve hostage situations and during bomb calls.

Originally, the Wichita Police Department asked for two robot dogs, one for the bomb squad and another for its SWAT unit. But with approval for just one robot, the department said that will go to its bomb squad.

The council approved one robot instead of two mainly because of cost. Two robots would have cost the city $639,647.56. A funding request for another robot dog will likely come before the council this summer.

“I want to make sure that safety of officers is number one and safety of residents is equally number one,” Mayor Lily Wu said. “So, I appreciate that there is technology now that does not put a human life at risk first and it’s able to really gather enough information, and then humans can then make the decision of what to do as the next step.”

Council member Becky Tuttle added an amendment to the funding requiring the department to report back to the council on whether it needs another robot, data on the existing robot’s use and a policy on how the robot is used.

“If we go forward with one today, I am fearful what will happen is that we’ll just get one, and things will move on,” Tuttle said, “and data has been requested. Policy has been requested. Efficacy of this has been requested.”

Some residents at Tuesday’s meeting called for a policy to be crafted first on the robot dog’s use before the funding was approved.

“Are the robot’s camera footage available, like body cam? Can we ask for that if they’re going into people’s houses?,” Wichita resident Faith Martin asked the council.

Police Chief Joe Sullivan said a policy could possibly be crafted by the department before the robot is first deployed.

Sullivan and Tuttle both also cited the ongoing war in Iran as reason for the department to add robots to its growing arsenal of technology.

“The world is incredibly unpredictable right now, especially with everything that’s happening in Iran today,” Tuttle said. “But the one thing that is consistent is this council’s keeping our police officers, our firefighters, our first responders safety as paramount, as well as our community members.”

Council members J.V. Johnson, Joseph Shepard, and Maggie Ballard were the three votes against funding for the robot.

So far, no other police department in Kansas has access to the robots from Boston Dynamics. The Topeka Police Department recently acquired a robot from a different manufacturer at a fraction of the price of Wichita’s.

The Wichita Police Department’s last line-of-duty death, unrelated to COVID-19, came from an explosion at the city’s bomb range in 2000.

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