See SPOT fight crime: WPS' new robot ready to be deployed

Winnipeg -

The Winnipeg Police Service’s newest recruit is agile, able to navigate difficult terrain and is good at taking direction.

He’s also battery powered and made of metal.

SPOT is a $247,000 mobile robot that was purchased by the WPS through the Criminal Property Forfeiture Fund.

The high-tech robot made by Boston Dynamics can open doors on its own, and has a camera to show what's on the other side. It’s a capability WPS Insp. Brian Miln said will be a huge asset in high-risk situations.

“That is the most significant contribution that is going to be made at one of these incidents, and it's one of the most dangerous things that our tactical support team, men and women, that’s something that they have to do when they arrive at a scene,” he said.

Miln said there were 89 such incidents in 2020, amounting to about one every four days.

“It is really a risk reduction tool. We will always prefer to put a machine in before we put a human in,” Miln said.

The robot was delivered to WPS in February. Miln said after some preliminary staff training, SPOT is ready to be deployed in the field. It takes about a week of in-house training to get officers ready to operate the robot, and more members are also set to be trained.

“It is not an AI-based technology, in the sense that it can operate on its own. It doesn't work like that. It still requires somebody to be on the other side of the controls, giving it commands,” Miln said.

“It is a very complicated piece of machinery.”