‘It scared them off’, Kansas City shoppers report less crime thanks to security robot patrolling strip mall
www.kctv5.comcross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/19944734
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - A sight previously thought to be science fiction is very real at a southeast Kansas City shopping center. Instead of a police officer, a security robot has been patrolling sidewalks and shoppers are taking notice.
Since Marshall the robot has been on the job, shoppers say the experiences have completely changed when they come to these stores. The robot can spend 23 hours a day monitoring the parking lot from all angles which gives people a new sense of protection and ease they don’t always have when out.
Marshall took over security at Brywood Centre in April. Before that, Karen White noticed a lot of trouble outside the shopping center.
“Sometimes it’d be concerning for your car like someone could take it or something,” White said.
Knowing now that Marshall is always watching, the risk of crime does not worry her or others as much.
“It made it very better, like you can’t be in the parking lot without seeing the robot,” White continued. “So, I think it scared them off.”
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We have protectrons in malls now?!
This’ll last until somebody with a mask spray paints the cameras.
even just a blindfold or a bedsheet over the cameras could do the job
Imagine it had guns and tasers its gonna end horribly
It could only be a joke. It is? Oh shit…
did the engineers install red leds in the eyes? if yes we might have a problem
EXTERMINATE!!!
Wasn’t this the exact plot of Revolution of the Daleks?
I knew I was not the only one
CITIZEN! DO NOT BE ALARMED! YOU WILL FEEL A SMALL TICKLING SENSATION AND THEN DEATH!
If I give the robot a wegie and put a piece of dirty underwear in its head, will it shoot me?
It’s in America so yes.
My point is that this thing is a dumb robot tha doesn’t have a weapon. So its actually a step up from racist mall cops shooting people because they’re brown.
…If I give a cat a wegie and put a piece of dirty underwear on its head, will it shoot me?
Uhhhh… How is it reading the ip addresses of people’s phones?
Someone made a mistake here. It’s not getting your IP address. An IP address is assigned by the gateway when you’re connected to an access point. An IP address is not an identity. They are always changing and can be shared. This has already been tested and upheld in court.
It’s actually collecting your MAC address. Which is exchanged when your phone or tablet scan nearby WiFi points or Bluetooth devices. However, this can already be defeated. By default iOS and Android both have the option to randomise the MAC address in intervals. Making it extremely difficult to prove anything. This feature exists because the devices real MAC address never changes. It is unique. Alternatively, users can disable WiFi and Bluetooth scanning entirely. However, your device no longer participates in the Find My Devices program by Apple and Google, location does take longer to acquire in some scenarios, and accuracy may take longer to triangulate.
Counter-argument, this is all correct, but when the application is against shopping mall criminals it will work well enough. Not talking masterminds here
It must be for wifi that they operate.
Scarier than I thought 😭
I bet it was something like the hardware id instead but she misspoke
It peobaby just has a WiFi repeater in it
I imagine it MITM’s the wifi? Obviously wouldn’t work with cellular but thats the only this claim can ve even remotely true.
That being said they could do some shit with malicious bluetooth/NFC behaviour but that would be a crime.
Ever hear of a stingray?
Why would it need to MITM the WiFi? The store runs and operates the wifi
good point.
I’ve heard for a while that stores use Bluetooth to track you as you go through a store. Not for anything nefarious but just to understand how people move around the store typically. So it probably does that too.
Well its probably not a MITM if its just an official access point
That’s fair. MITM wouldn’t be the right term.
First of all if you’re too scared to go into a store because you think your car is going to be robbed You’re probably too scared to live in public. However from the description it sounds like this thing’s just a tall camera? It can’t do anything except monitor? So how is this any better than those towers with cameras on them?
Psychology. Ever see ring doorbell footage where the owner says “drop the package” and people do? Its not like the owner could do anything, but for some reason it makes people behave differently.
This is in a pretty rough part of town
This is missouri, it’s not unrealistic that a car especially a those kias might get stolen.
I have a really cute video of my 3 year old daughter chasing one of those through the mall.
One of these hit my car. It was out patrolling randomly in a parking lot and I pulled up to get a better look at it. I stopped like 6 ft in front of it but it just kept on coming and ran into my fucking car.
“You are illegally parked on private property. You have twenty seconds to move your vehicle.” -ED-209
Sorry, I laughed. Did it do damage? What was the outcome?
Left some paint on the car but that was it.
That’s the downside of having the invisible boatmobile, they just keep coming
Imagine shoplifting and they show up at the exit like:
I’m pretty sure privacy goes out the window when you commit a crime. If it isn’t robots it would be humans arresting you.
Don’t support criminals in any form as they are the ones who are actively creating a need to stop crime.
The bootlicking version of “why do you need privacy if you have nothing to hide?”
HOLT!
I’ve seen Chopping Mall and know how this is going to end
Runaway as well, but without the mall.
I’m glad someone else had this thought!
Can’t wait for the rollout in Philadelphia https://edition.cnn.com/2015/08/03/us/hitchbot-robot-beheaded-philadelphia-feat/index.html