SACRAMENTO, CA – California Governor Gavin Newsom—at the behest of police—has vetoed AB 2681, a bill that would have excluded the use of robotic technology used by law enforcement.
The measure, co-authored by Assemblywoman Akilah Weber (D-La Mesa), would have made it illegal to “manufacture, modify, sell, transfer or operate a robotic device equipped with a weapon” and specifically excluded the “exception for law enforcement.”
The ACLU warned Newsom’s veto would enable police to “kill more often,” and through the example of “killer robot cops patrolling a peaceful protest,” noted real concerns about invading privacy and interfering with freedom of speech, The Bee reported.
The ACLU advocated for using taxpayer dollars to reinvest in the community, rather than “pushing police to view themselves ‘at war’ with the community,” and instead invest in services that promote public safety.
Issues of the militarization of law enforcement were of great concern as a result of the veto, according to the ACLU.
Mohammad Tasir of the ACLU, stated that “the militarization of law enforcement only deepens the divide between current police practice and genuine community safety” and emphasized that when police use robots “the only winners are the weapons manufacturers who walk away with millions of our tax dollars.”
In Newsom’s veto statement, he “wrote that he supports Weber’s intent to place common sense restrictions on drones, but that he reserves the right of police to use robotic force,” according to a story in the Sacramento Bee.
In the event that law enforcement is “confronted with armed and barricaded suspects, law enforcement agencies sometimes use operated robots to deploy less-lethal force” in effort to drive them into the open and protect officers from dangerous suspects, the governor said, added The Bee.
In response to this veto, Weber told The Bee she was “extremely disappointed” in Newsom’s decision to veto the bill as well as his lack of involvement in the “legislation (of it) until the final days of the legislative session” despite the bill going through “both houses of the Legislature with unanimous support.”
