After a lengthy debate, Los Angeles City Council President Paul Krekorian postponed a controversial acceptance vote on Tuesday

an early one

the donation of one

almost

$280,000 dog-like robot for the LAPD.

“I would like if it comes back, the policy currently in place before the council as a condition of accepting this gift,” Krekorian said towards the end of Tuesday’s discussion.

Delaying the vote by 60 days, he said, “would also allow us to exhaust every opportunity to get answers to the questions that have been raised about existing betting options and so forth.”

Police officials say the device, nicknamed Spot, would only be deployed in limited circumstances requiring a response from the SWAT team. Its presence, they argue, would enable authorities to avoid unnecessarily endangering officers and avoid potentially violent encounters.

Officials said it would be paid for with a donation from the Los Angeles Police Foundation. The city would be on the hook for future maintenance and repairs.

Both the Board of Commissioners of Police and the council’s public safety committee have approved the move.

But opposition to the robots has grown in the weeks since, with critics pointing to the technology’s disastrous deployment in New York City. Many have questioned the device

usage

public safety

implications

and concerned about the potential for abuse to harm and spy on black and brown communities.

Some of those passions spilled

about

to Tuesday’s meeting.

Several speakers raised concerns about privacy and data collection during a public comment period.

Later in the meeting, Councilman Eunisses Hernandez said

she worried about future job applications

Despite insistence from LAPD officials and manufacturer Boston Dynamics that there are no plans to equip Spot with facial recognition

possibilities

or weapons.

“This is a product and products will meet the needs of desires in the future,” said Hernandez, a staunch critic of the device who said she plans to vote against

the donation.

“Why does our police force need a device that can even have those capabilities in the future? We know that our black, brown, immigrant communities and our less well-off communities are so often the places where these new technologies are deployed.

Councilman Traci Park, who voted in favor of the technology

on

the public safety committee rejected the suggestion that

the robot would put

the department “towards a dystopian, Orwellian future of state surveillance.”

Times staff writer David Zahniser contributed to this report.