Earlier this week, San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors voted to allow the police department to use robots which can kill under extreme circumstances.

The move was introduced with the requirement for police to only deploy the robots after first using various other de-escalation tactics.

Unlike other police departments in the United States, San Francisco’s police department, at present, do not have any robots with the potential to be lethal.

A spokesperson for the city’s police department said the robots could be used in the future and, “could potentially be equipped with explosive charges to breach fortified structures containing violent, armed, or dangerous subjects.”

They stated further that the robots could be used to “incapacitate, disorient violent, armed, or dangerous suspects who pose a risk of loss of life.”

Dr Catherine Connolly, a member of Stop Killers, commented that the move could make “humans more and most distant from the use of force and the consequences of the use of force.”

Other opponents of the decision consider the use of killer robots to likely lead to increased militarisation of the police force.