Atlanta — A busy neighborhood in Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward has gotten some high-tech help to combat crime.

Residents of Wingate City Lights located on Boulevard have a sleek, white, pear-shaped robot rolling on patrol. The Knightscope is about 5′4″ and 420 pounds, securing the property’s perimeter at about 3 MPH.

Juanita Johnson watches the robot roll by and tells WSB she likes to give it a “Hey, how you doing” smile and wave.

“It makes me feel safer, because it comes right here, scans right here, and then it’ll turn around and go back. I love it,” says Johnson. “The security guard that’s over the building is watching everything. And it works every day.”

Takela Smith says it makes her feel more secure, and she and Johnson have known it to call for help when a neighbor in a crosswalk got hit by a car.

“A car was flying up the street and he got struck,” says Smith. “The robot seen it, notified APD, APD pulled up, paramedics pulled up, so it was kind of like prompt. It was fast and he didn’t have to wait to get the medical attention that he needed. It works.”

Smith says she talked to one of their complex’s security guards, who told her that the guard who would have been monitoring at the time was not in the building—so the robot called police itself. The Atlanta Police Department says it has not been able to locate any reports regarding any interactions between the Knightscope Robot and APD.

Knightscope’s 360-degree cameras and microphones raise concerns for resident Ashley Cloud.

“It records people when they talk, and that’s invading your privacy,” says Cloud, who worries someone’s words could be taken out of context. She also believes the autonomous robot is invading the workforce.

“I think it’s unnecessary,” Cloud says. “Whatever that little robot’s doing, you could pay somebody to do it, too.”

The robot quietly patrols back and forth, turning corners to scope the block and scan the area for continuous surveillance. When someone walks in front of it, it stops. A preschool girl reached out to gently touch it as it rolled by. The back of the Knightscope also has a button near the top inviting someone to “PUSH FOR ASSISTANCE.”

Wingate also has a stationary Knightscope playing sentry in the back of the property, monitoring the block and its parking lots.

Smith knows some people feel uneasy about the cameras, but she views them as a real help to Atlanta Police and building security, and a crime deterrent. She says Atlanta Police also patrol more often and the neighborhood feels safer.

“If you’re not doing anything you don’t supposed to be doing, why have a problem with safety?” she asks. “A long time ago, down on Parkway on the other side of Boulevard, it used to be killings every single day. Now, they got this high-tech stuff.

“You’ve got our little 496 robot just strolling on through, scanning anybody that comes through. So if anything happens, they can always go to the robot and pull it, so it won’t be hard for them to find the suspect. I like it. When something be going on, police come with no problem at all. I like it.”