Austin City Council voted to authorize a contract to purchase the technology during the July 24 council meeting. District 10 council member Mike Siegel was the sole dissenting vote.
The details
Per agenda documents, the vehicle—named Spot—is a four-legged robot that can navigate indoor and outdoor environments and will be used by APD’s special operations unit when responding to critical incidents.
The robot can be operated manually by remote control or automatically using its perception and guidance systems to follow predefined routes, and will reduce officer exposure during high-risk events such as explosive or suspicious packages, hazardous materials or barricaded subjects.
The cost
The vote approved a one-year contract for the vehicle with Safeware Inc. not to exceed $304,619.
According to agenda documents, $250,000 is available in the special revenue fund of the Homeland Security and Emergency Management through the federal grant funded 2024 State Homeland Security Program, and the other $54,619 is available in APD’s operating budget.
Offering input
During the public communication period prior to the vote, resident Daniela Silva asked council to postpone the vote in order to add language stating the technology would not be used for surveillance in lieu of community policing, not incorporate artificial intelligence video monitoring, and not be equipped with items that could potentially harm a person.
“There is a lot of concern around what kind of services this technology could be used for in the future,” Silva said. “There are several concerns that folks from the No ALPRs coalition have expressed, mostly in that it could potentially harm people especially if it is not being controlled by a person on the backend as these can be set to operate in an automated way.”
