The Lakewood Township Committee has authorized a resolution allowing for the acquisition of a Packbot or similar type of robot from the military to be used by the Lakewood Police Department.
A Packbot is a specialized robot whose variants are often used by the military in war zones, as well as by NASA and by emergency teams in the wake of major disasters, including after 9/11 and the 2011 nuclear accident in Fukushima, Japan.
According to the resolution, “The robot would be a useful tool for the Lakewood Police Department to assist with responses to handling active shooter incidents, hostage incidents, hazardous material incidents, and confined space incidents.”
The robot will be acquired through the Federal 1033 program, which allows law enforcement agencies to obtain excess inventory that the military no longer has a use for at no charge. The only costs to the Lakewood Police Department in getting the robot would be delivery, operating, and maintenance expenses.
Hire more cops, promote more supervisors, spend more on equalized training for all officers….all probably be a better ways to spend the money than a robot they will never use.