See Spot spend

With pockets full of federal funds, the Honolulu Police Department spent $150,045 of pandemic relief money on a robotic dog. The police department got the money for the robotic dog through the CARES Act, the coronavirus aid package that made billions of dollars of loan money available to businesses as well as state and municipal governments. Honolulu Police named the robot Spot and deployed it to the department’s tent city for the homeless with a charge to take the temperatures of inhabitants. In an emailed statement to Honolulu Civil Beat, a department spokesman claimed the dog was “more than a thermometer” and could also perform a “touchless field screening” and interact with people in quarantine. According to creator Boston Dynamics, the robotic dog also dances.

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