Berkeley County Sheriff's Office: Vantage Robot Ends an Armed Standoff

Transcript

Have someone who's in a crisis mode or if there's something going on and they're behind four walls and in a closed door, when we introduce that robot, then they're like oh, okay, well maybe I'm not so untouchable now. Industry as a whole operates now with these tools. It just doesn't make any sense to knowingly putting human life in harm's way, on our side or escalating it to a point where, who, whatever the reason we're there, that person in crisis, putting them in maybe in undue harm's way. When we have that ability to use this vantage robot and some of the other tools we have to keep that from happening. Wouldn't care if the robot got shot.

If it got shot, we would fix it, repair it, whatever needs to be done and we'd be back there. But the talent agency, if you have the ability and the funds to do it, you deploy it. You'll find out how well it works for you. And I could go on numerous different things that we've used this thing on and how I felt like and no one was hurt, none of us got hurt. The persons in crisis did not get hurt. And we were able to deescalate the situations.

[Scene audio] Michael, come to the door. ... Exit your residence with your hands in the air.

So we've surrounded the house. We got Berkeley County, SRT team or SWAT team out here and we're going forward with that. Try to get him in custody as safe as possible. He's currently the only one in the house. As soon as Frank gets here, we get the robot set up, ready to go. Yeah. But right now I got Zoff and Barden up here with Reed. I got one two corner with less lethal shotgun. Okay. Lambert back here with Donogan and Jasper with less lethal 40.

[Scene audio] Michael, I know you have tough time tonight. You want help? ... Michael, this is the sheriff's office. Come speak with me. ... Michael, we're not leaving man. You gotta talk to me. ... Michael, are you able to stand up and come downstairs? ... Alright, now put your hand up for me. Good job. Now come on down the stairs. Hands up. Keep your hands up.

No deputies were hit or anything like that. So we ended up calling the SRT team out, which is our equivalent of SWAT team and we're able to successfully, get him to come out through some negotiation and through use of a lot of our SWAT equipment. They did a good job on that.

[Reporter] And Curtis, they used this robotic device there. What are the capabilities of something like that?

With technology these days, it's for officer safety. Officers didn't have to go in the house. They use this robot to go in there, has lights, has a microphone, has eyes for them. Video. Not only that but it has like some of these have hands. Ours do. And it also can deliver OC spray, which is like pepper spray. If the individual's in there shoots it out. This way we can get the person without us getting hurt or they get hurt.