A sight previously thought to be science fiction is very real at a southeast Kansas City shopping center. Instead of a police officer, a security robot has been patrolling sidewalks and shoppers are taking notice.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/19944734

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - A sight previously thought to be science fiction is very real at a southeast Kansas City shopping center. Instead of a police officer, a security robot has been patrolling sidewalks and shoppers are taking notice.

Since Marshall the robot has been on the job, shoppers say the experiences have completely changed when they come to these stores. The robot can spend 23 hours a day monitoring the parking lot from all angles which gives people a new sense of protection and ease they don’t always have when out.

Marshall took over security at Brywood Centre in April. Before that, Karen White noticed a lot of trouble outside the shopping center.

“Sometimes it’d be concerning for your car like someone could take it or something,” White said.

Knowing now that Marshall is always watching, the risk of crime does not worry her or others as much.

“It made it very better, like you can’t be in the parking lot without seeing the robot,” White continued. “So, I think it scared them off.”

  • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
    3·
    2 months ago

    It’s gotta be pretty easy to disable.

    Wear a mask and gloves, walk up with what, a stun gun and give it a nice jolt. Or just throw a wire mesh bag over it.

    Other similar bots have been pushed into fountains.

    • linearchaos@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      2 months ago

      Yeah taking it out of the picture isn’t the problem but that starts the timer. The thing’s being remotely monitored and that would bring the police

      Ideally the criminals want to loiter. Look for targets.

      I strongly suspect if you were able to get enough tagged data for shoppers versus Nair do wells, purely from video surveillance footage you could target potential thieves based on location of movement characteristics.

      • delirious_owl@discuss.online
        3·
        2 months ago

        Aaand target loads of people who are from a different culture and innocent in the process. Usually these false-positives fall hardest on people of color, historically

    • superkret@feddit.org
      2·
      2 months ago

      In a few years, they’ll adjust the laws, so that would count as assault on a police officer.