NYPD robot no longer patrolling Times Square station
Rust in peace.
The NYPD’s AI-driven security robot finished its last tour of duty in the Times Square subway station last week following a months-long pilot program, officials confirmed Sunday.
The more-than 400-pound egg-shaped Knightscope K5 is no longer being deployed in the transit system, according to law enforcement sources.
Straphangers who spoke to The Post Sunday were not sad to see it go.
“I think the robot is just to scare people,” said Alexandria Reese, who added she did “absolutely not” feel safer with K5 patrolling the transit system.
Nick Linnear, an MTA employee for the past five years, didn’t think the robots made sense.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” he told The Post. Although he hadn’t seen the robots himself, he thought the idea was a nonstarter.
“We need police—not robots,” he concluded.
The new tech’s September arrival was highly touted by police brass and Mayor Eric Adams, who said it was an “innovative tool” to fight crime.
Working with human police partners, the rolling bot worked 18-hour shifts at the city’s busiest subway station, using its 360 HD camera to capture footage that detectives could review and synch with the department’s facial recognition database following a crime.
The cop bot had buttons and microphones that would allow straphangers to call human officers for help, but it did not record audio while patrolling the station, police said.
The department leased K5 for six months at a cost of $12,500 and paid for it using forfeiture funds, officials said last year.
Lifelong Queens resident Rafael Escotto, 23, had never heard of the robots but said they conjured the image of a giant Hoover vacuum cleaner.
“I can’t imagine one not cleaning,” he said, over the sounds of a busking accordionist in the Times Square station.
“Can they apprehend someone? Can they save someone who falls on the tracks?” he joked. “I wonder where the money goes,” he added wryly.
Joseph Williams, a Harlem resident since 1994, did not his mince his words. “It’s bulls–t. Straight bulls–t,” he said. “It’s a waste of taxpayer money.”
The NYPD did not share details of the bot’s crime-fighting effectiveness but K5 appeared to have avoided any more high-profile disasters in the Crossroads of the World after several mishaps in recent years.
Back in 2016, a K5 ran over a child’s foot in a California call, according to CNN.
A year later one reportedly took a dive into a water fountain in a DC mall.
A robotic police K9 dubbed Digidog was welcomed back into the NYPD’s ranks last year after its contract with Boston Dynamics was terminated in 2021 when a clip of the machine patrolling a Manhattan housing project went viral and sparked backlash and comparisons to the dystopic TV show “Black Mirror.”
