SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – There have been plenty of tense situations involving SWAT teams in San Diego County.
“Usually when we have a high-risk situation, if we're serving a warrant, a barricade subject, hostage rescue situation, one of the biggest things is we need to gain access inside the building,” Deputy Travis Hoberecht with San Diego County Sheriff’s Office SWAT Team said.
A way to get inside the building can be with robots like the ones that run on tracks.
“Except for the flaws with the tracks is they get bound up on stuff like clothing,” Hoberecht said. “It gets bound up in the tracks and it's unable to complete its mission.”
Hoberecht not only goes into the fray, but he also controls the robots.
Now the Sheriff’s Office has a new way to overcome those challenges and help resolve high-stakes scenarios.
“Our quadruped robot can make entry, go inside, go upstairs, downstairs. It can use its various cameras to be able to look around corners. It's got infrared cameras as well as thermal cameras,” Hoberecht said. “The robot itself has the grabber on it. So, we can use that to gain access through the door and then be able to walk through the house.”
The robot is the Sheriff's Office's newest de-escalation tool. That way, deputies can gather information about a situation and not put themselves, the subjects, or others involved in those high-risk situations in danger.
"A lot of it's going to be used for de-escalation. That's a big thing is being able to get into that high-risk environment without using a person or a SWAT member to go inside and be able to establish communication routes,” Hoberecht said
Hoberecht told ABC 10News that communication starts de-escalation.
“We use these devices called throw phones. It’s a phone that you can throw. Well, we don't have to throw it anymore. We can carry it inside, hand it to the subjects, and be able to communicate with them,” Hoberecht said. "Then we can start talking about what do they want, what do they need, what are their needs at this moment. We can get our crisis negotiation team involved.”
But the robot, named after a fallen K-9 officer, Urk, can look a little intimidating.
The Sheriff’s Office told ABC 10News, Urk doesn’t have any AI packages or data saving on its cameras. It’s also hoping to get the word out about the technology, considering that it does look like something out of a sci-fi movie or a tool that the military would use.
“This specific robot made by Boston Dynamics was made for public safety, so there is no way that it can be armed. There's no way that it can be used to attack anybody. It's got built-in features, sensors that keeps it from running into people,” Hoberecht said. “But the reference as far as militarization, no, we're just trying to gather information, gather intel. That’s the only thing that we're trying to do."
