The robot dog seen sniffing around New York City crime scenes over the past few months has been powered down and mailed back to Boston. Spot — a.k.a Digidog, as the NYPD had named its newest four-legged, camera-equipped employee — was brought on to defuse “hazardous situations,” but it very quickly became the subject of widespread outcry, including harsh criticism from Representative Jamaal Bowman, who chastened the department for using taxpayer money to buy yet another surveillance tool. In response to a subpoena filed by City Councilmembers Ben Kallos and Corey Johnson, the NYPD revealed that the price they paid to lease the dog from Boston Dynamics was $94,000.
After the New York Times reported that Digidog had been removed from its beat on April 22, NYPD’s deputy commissioner for intelligence and counterterrorism confirmed today that the cyborg canine’s contract had, in fact, been terminated. Woof.
