Petropavlovsk, 21 October. Police in North Kazakhstan Region have started using a robot dog with artificial intelligence that can recognise faces and check them against databases of wanted criminals and missing persons, Polisia.kz reports.
The robot's first trial outing took place at the Dostyq Mall shopping and entertainment centre in Petropavlovsk. The machine is an unmanned ground vehicle: lidars — light rangefinders that measure the distance to objects with a beam of light — help it move among people, while cameras with a 360-degree view capture faces and compare them with the databases. According to the police, two batteries last a full working shift.
For now the robot dog's main job is prevention: through a built-in loudspeaker it tells visitors about the threat of online fraud. The police hope that interest in the unusual helper will help them get their warnings across to more people.
To check faces against the wanted list, the robot has cameras with a 360-degree view; to fight online fraudsters, it has a loudspeaker.
The machine can be sent where it is difficult or dangerous for a person to go, and if fitted with a gas analyser it will also be able to help search for prohibited substances. Darkhan Nauryzbayev, deputy head of the North Kazakhstan Region police department, noted that the robot can carry out tasks where an ordinary drone cannot be used. The department called the purchase of the robot one of the important events of 2026, which Kazakhstan has declared the Year of Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence.
What it means: The regional police have acquired a robot patroller with face recognition. For now it works as a mobile loudspeaker with fraud warnings, but in future it could help search for wanted people and prohibited substances.
Who benefits: The police — as an extra tool for prevention and finding people; shopping-centre visitors — as a source of fraud warnings. The police statement did not say how much the robot cost or who made it.
Background: Robot dogs had earlier been used by police in East Kazakhstan Region at the Nomad Álemi ethnic festival in the village of Kasym Kaisenov: the machines patrolled the area, checked faces against databases and transmitted video to the Operational Control Centre in real time.
List of sources used: Kursiv
Artificial intelligence was used in preparing this material.
