Skyler Lee, of LVMPD’s ARMOR division, shows off the capabilities of the T5 robot at Metro’s Southeast Area Command on Tuesday.
Members of a special section of the Metropolitan Police Department gathered Tuesday at Metro’s Southeast Area Command to introduce a special member of their team: a crime-fighting robot.
Metro’s ARMOR, or All-Hazard Regional Multi-agency Operations and Response section, supports SWAT teams throughout the Las Vegas Valley with a team of robots in tow.
“They’ve been around since we’ve been developed as a team,” said ARMOR Detective Kasey Kirkegard of her robotic colleagues. The collection of robots that ARMOR operates is growing and evolving, she explained.
In the past couple of months, Metro has welcomed a new kind of canine: a robot dog named Spot by robotics manufacturer Boston Dynamics.
Kirkegard said her team has not yet given the robotic dog a name. “He hasn’t earned his keep yet,” she said.
While ARMOR’s Spot didn’t greet community members Tuesday, as it was busy being synced up with the department’s central radio channel, another crime-fighting robot, the T5, rolled across the tile floors.
The robot dog has only been deployed on a handful of missions since joining the force, Kirkegard said. But moving forward, its agility may set it apart from less nimble robots like the T5.
“The situation will dictate,” Kirkegard said.
While Kirkegard said that ARMOR doesn’t follow any specific policy about when to deploy a robot, dangerous and volatile situations will usually invite their use.
“Every SWAT call we’ve had, we’ve always deployed a robot,” she said. This means that instead ofan officer heading into a dangerous situation, the robot will go first.
Not every Metro officer is trained to use the robots. In fact, Kirkegard said only nine people know how to use them.
At Tuesday’s event, the T5, a robot designed to assist SWAT teams in surveying a scene and retrieving suspicious devices with a robotic claw, slowly moved as SWAT officer and ARMOR section member Skyler Lee toggled a controller.
Normally, the robot moves faster when controlled by its normal operating system, Lee explained.
He pointed out three cameras, all of which can detect, with the help of a flashlight, information about a scene and potential suspect. It also has speakers and a microphone and can be used to communicate with potential suspects.
The robots can open doors and, if needed, have the strength to break them down. While the new robot dog has never been shot, the T5 has been shot, pushed down stairs, flooded with water and gassed, Kirkegard said.
“He’s still functioning just fine,” she added.
Contact Estelle Atkinson at eatkinson@reviewjournal.com. Follow @estellelilym onX and @ estelleatkinsonreports on Instagram.