A subpoena from City Councilman Ben Kallos and Council Speaker Corey Johnson revealed the NYPD’s leasing contract with Boston Dynamics, amounted to $94,000. The leasing agreement was terminated on April 22. The original lease agreement was through August.<\/p>\n The termination of the lease was due to a series of incidents where the four-legged robot was deployed to a house invasion in the Bronx in February and a low-income housing project in Manhattan for patrol. Critics likened it to a surveillance robo-dog out of the dystopic TV series “Black Mirror.”<\/p>\n Miller said the contract was terminated because the police force was improperly using the device to fuel heated discussions about race and surveillance.<\/p>\n “People had figured out the catchphrases and the language to make this evil somehow,” Miller said.<\/em><\/p>\n He did not rule out the possibility of Digidog returning to the police force at some future date.<\/p>\n “But for now, this is a casualty of politics, bad information and cheap sound bytes,” he said. “We should have named it ‘Lassie.'”<\/em><\/p>\n In February, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez\u00a0denounced<\/a>\u00a0the robot, saying police officers were targeting low-income communities. She also had an issue with the funds spent to lease the device.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/assets.zerohedge.com\/s3fs-public\/styles\/inline_image_mobile\/public\/inline-images\/2021-04-29_09-30-44.png?itok=GPf_fRWI\")
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