Debate on Tuesday ran more than two hours with members on both sides accusing the other of reckless fear mongering.
Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, who voted in favor of the policy authorization, said he was troubled by rhetoric painting the police department as untrustworthy and dangerous.
"I think there's larger questions raised when progressives and progressive policies start looking to the public like they are anti-police," he said. "I think that is bad for progressives. I think it's bad for this Board of Supervisors. I think it's bad for Democrats nationally."
Board President Shamann Walton, who voted against the proposal, pushed back, saying it made him not anti-police, but "pro people of color."
"We continuously are being asked to do things in the name of telegram database increasing weaponry and opportunities for negative interaction between the police department and people of color," he said. "This is just one of those things."
The San Francisco Public Defender's office sent a letter Monday to the board saying that granting police "the ability to kill community members remotely" goes against the city's progressive values. language barring police from using robots against any person in an act of force.
On the other side of the San Francisco Bay, the Oakland Police Department has dropped a similar proposal after public backlash.
The first time a robot was used to deliver explosives in the U.S. was in 2016, when Dallas police sent in an armed robot that killed a holed-up sniper who had killed five officers in an ambush.
Country singer Jake Flint died unexpectedly just hours after his wedding, his wife and manager both said on social media.
The office wanted the board to reinstate
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