Off the News: HPD’s robotic dog meets the public

The Honolulu Police Department bought Spot the Robotic Dog with federal COVID-19 relief funds, noting that it could do temperature checks at a screening site for the homeless. Now vaccines are lowering the risk of such duties, so HPD did a demonstration on Friday to show it could do other hazardous tasks, such as addressing chemical spills.

But the question is still the same: Was it worth $150,000? HPD will be under some pressure to prove it is, especially if tech advances make it cheaper.

Taking down the seawalls

The battle of the seawalls fronting Portlock oceanfront properties has been going on for 20-plus years. Now there’s hope, finally, of resolution. The state Land Board has ordered two neighboring homeowners to remove the walls, known to have coastal erosion impacts.

There have been delays and challenges of the orders over the years, but now it seems the state has drawn a line in the sand, so to speak, about the lots owned by Robert Wells and Gohana LLC. If the state’s resolve on this issue had eroded, it’s good to see it being built back up.