I think this is being used to sell us the next level of tyranny, once again under the guise of safety.  There is a clue in the robotic bomb allegedly deployed to take out the alleged lone shooter.  With 5 cops lying dead in the street and several more with serious wounds, the behavior of the Dallas cops seems awfully restrained.  They would normally be ultra-aggressive when going after a cop-killer.  But they have the shooter trapped and yet they spend all this time negotiating with him?  After he just killed their comrades?  There's nothing to negotiate, the shooter is as good as dead.  

 

But back to the robot.  What's the next level of policing?  To take away the human element (and the danger to human cops) by using robots and drones for everyday police work.  It's already happening in some ways.  The networks of high-def cameras already along highways and in cities are a huge force multiplier.  They are cheap and run 24/7.  The hi-def video can be archived and later analyzed.  License plate readers record date, time, location, and plate number, etc.  Some cities have microphones and even hi-def cameras in every street lamp.  In California, officials planted hidden microphones outside courthouses and even in state parks. 

 

In the military drone program, the pilots fly missions in the Middle East but they actually live in Seattle and sleep in their own beds every night.  Maybe future police work will be done by drone pilots working for Federal agencies.  They could be located anywhere and still "work a shift" in Dallas or anywhere else.  Huge force multiplier, and no human cops are on the front line. 

 

The Dallas PD had a bomb-laden robot ready to go.  Does every big city PD have these?  Do they have other robots?  There are prototype DARPA drones and robots that are essentially Robocops - armed and interacting with the public.  We are turning cops into robots anyway, with the tazers, cameras, comm gear, body armor, weapon systems.  Might as well just mount it all on a bulletproof and mobile robotic frame and take the human cops off the street.

 

As FBT said, If cops continue to be targeted, they will stop responding to calls.  And they will naturally turn to "safer" electronic surveillance and patrol methods.  What's really needed is a Federal takeover of large metro police departments to coordinate these new police methods and to facilitate the sale of militarized robots to the city and state law enforcement agencies.  Oops, Obama already thought of that.  Hmm.

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