Professor Joh Comments for Media on Use of Police Robot to Kill Dallas Sniper

Professor Elizabeth Joh commented for media including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, The Guardian, National Public Radio, Chicago Tribune, and Gizmodo on the use of a robot by Dallas police to kill a sniper who killed five officers and wounded nine others on July 7. 

"As far as I know, it appears to be the first intentional use of a lethally armed robot by the police in the United States," Professor Joh told The Guardian.

In an essay published in "Room for Debate," a feature of the New York Times website, Professor Joh writes of the need for government regulation of police robots.  "Regulation of police robots should come about by consensus, and not be guided by fear. The wider use of police robots is inevitable, so the time to regulate is now," writes Joh.

In an interview with National Public Radio, Joh said the incident in Dallas was "a makeshift response to an ongoing emergency, but we shouldn't be surprised if police departments that are watching this situation decide they want to be proactive and have such a robot at hand should a similar crisis arise. The question going forward is, 'Should this be used again, and when?' "

Professor Joh writes and teaches in criminal law and procedure; her scholarship has addressed the impact of new technologies on policing, privacy concerns raised by forensic DNA collection, and undercover policing.