Enlarge / A five-foot (1.5 meter) tall outdoor K5 security robot patrols the grounds of the Washington Harbour retail-residential center in the Georgetown district of Washington, DC July 26, 2017. (credit: ROB LEVER/AFP/Getty Images))
As of Thursday morning local time, a San Francisco animal adoption agency will immediately halt its recent use of a controversial security robot.
The moves comes after the San Francisco SPCA had been scrutinized for its deployment of a Knightscope K9 to mitigate vandalism and the presence of homeless people at its Mission District office. Knightscope, a Silicon Valley startup, touts the robots on its own website as the “security team of the future.”
News of the robot was recently highlighted when Business Insider reported Tuesday on the San Francisco SPCA’s use of the robot under the headline: “Robots are being used to deter homeless people from setting up camp in San Francisco.”