visualize a world where police robots roam the street dealing with offence , and I can pretty much ensure you ’ll either   remember of a bloodcurdling all - potent constabulary state where everything has exit dreadfully untimely and / orRobocop .

But it bend out golem police force are already here and it ’s nothing like either of those choice : They just do n’t really give a hoot about citizen .

For those of you who miss it , to begin with this year Huntington Park , California sum a new police officer to its team ; a golem actually named RoboCop .

It even has its own twee societal medium accounts , and has chaffer to Elon Musk .

At the sentence of RoboCop ’s unveiling , the metropolis and law force were affirmative that the robot cop would be a real asset to the force , a harden copper that stops at nothing to get the job done .

“ HP RoboCop ’s capability are extremely impressive , ” City Manager Ricardo Reyes said in astatement . “ In particular its power to use its microphone to discourage criminal activity and its mobility to police big open space . ”

“ The police department is lofty to welcome HP RoboCop as an official appendage of the police force , ” Police Chief Cosme Lozano   also chip off in . “ The extra help will definitely give the officers more fourth dimension to sharpen on other residential area issues . I am confident he will outfit right in . ”

And so , on June 18 , RoboCop   began patrolling public areas , in its unrelenting search for crime . Recently , RoboCop was at last put to the test when a   engagement broke out in the parking lot of   Salt Lake Park , business district Los Angeles , NBC News reports . A watcher ,   Cogo Guebara , see the fight and immediately approach the golem with " POLICE " written across it in massive missive for assistance .

When she pressed the automaton ’s exigency alarum button , she was expecting it to call the cops for help . It did not . Instead , it told her toget out of the path .

“ I was pushing the button but it said , ‘ maltreat out of the way , ’ ” Guebara told NBC News . “ It just hold back ringing and ringing , and I kept push and pushing . ”

While another watcher , Rudy Espericuta , called the bull the old - fashioned way on his phone , RoboCop carried on its pre - programmed patrol itinerary , now and then stopping to tell people to " keep the park neat " . Meanwhile , a womanhood involved in the engagement was being carry into an ambulance with a stinger on her caput sustained during the incident .

Why no help from the automaton , you may take . Perhaps they have already turned on humans and are only interested in robocrimes ?

Well , it turns out that RoboCop is in no direction connect to the actual police . The call instead go to the robots ' creator , Knightscope , who leases the automaton to the police department .

Knightscope also made the robot security guard that famously " committed suicide " in 2017 .

It turns out , the robots ' cameras , which are capable of recording 360 - level high-pitched definition video and live - stream it to police phones , are not connected to the constabulary yet , nor are its abilities to read permit plate and cart track cell headphone use in the area . Police Chief Cosme Lozano told NBC News that the golem is there on a trial foundation , and will finally be in full connected to the department ’s dispatch center .

But for the moment if you see RoboCop you may be assured it does n’t actually do anything . It just potters around LA , tells citizen upset about crime to get out of the elbow room , and   sometimes , just sometimes ,   schmooze to Elon Musk on Twitter . At a cost of $ 60,000-$70,000 a twelvemonth .