NYPD 'robocop' no longer patrolling Times Square subway station: 'I thought it was a toy'

The robot touted as a "cost-efficient" way to keep New York City subway riders safe has been tucked away in storage after a portion of the pilot program that brought it to a Times Square station has drawn to an uneventful close.

Last year, Mayor Eric Adams gave not one but two public announcements about Knightscope K5. Standing five feet, three inches tall and weighing 400 pounds, the robot had cameras outfitted on all sides to monitor the 42 Street subway station mezzanine. It also offered a help button for riders to press in case of an emergency.

The city leased K5 for $12,250 total, and it was placed on the Times Square subway beat from midnight until 6 a.m. for two months. Perhaps fudging the numbers slightly, Adams claimed that the cost worked out to the bargain price of $9 an hour. "This is below minimum wage, no bathroom breaks, no meal breaks, this is a good investment," Adams said in September.

As so often happens with quick-fix gimmicks, K5 seemed to be little more than a subway novelty feature. A recent New York Times report claimed that riders almost never used it for safety. When they interacted with it at all, they usually took a selfie with it or attempted to damage it.

"I thought it was a toy," claimed Derek Dennis, a 56-year-old signal engineer cited by the Times.

Albert Fox Cahn, the executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, previously called it a "trash can on wheels" but then joked that "it looks like the wheels aren’t even working at this point."

Even without functioning wheels, a trash bin can be useful, but it doesn't seem that K5 ever brought any measure of safety to the station or cost savings to the city. For one thing, it was always flanked by two police officers making considerably more than $9 an hour. Two such officers who spoke with the Times earlier this month claimed they'd never seen K5 "on the beat."

Kelvin Caines, a security officer, gave the Times a similar story. K5's cops "never let it do anything," he said. "They could at least walk it down the hallway."

The NYPD even seemed to acknowledge tacitly that the K5 trial had been a failure. During a recent video montage featuring all of the new, exciting technology the department had used in the last year, K5 never once made an appearance.

Still, K5 was deployed on just a six-month pilot program overall, and a spokesperson for Mayor Adams stated that the robot completed its Times Square stint in December as scheduled.

"The Adams administration is constantly exploring innovative technologies that can advance the work we’ve done to bring down crime and keep New Yorkers safe, while maximizing the use of taxpayer dollars," said Charles Lutvak. "We are reviewing options for the K5’s next deployment as part of the pilot."

Stacy Stephens, a spokesman for Knightscope, declined to comment on the future of K5 in NYC. "Unfortunately, we are not authorized to speak about certain clients," she told the Times. "We do hope you understand."

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