Key Points
- Amazon’s Ring is partnering with law enforcement tech company Flock Safety.
- The deal will allow Ring users to share their camera footage with police departments easily.
- Police will be able to send out “Community Requests” for video evidence related to a crime.
- The move is a major step in the growing integration of private security tech and public law enforcement.
Amazon’s Ring security cameras are getting even more deeply integrated with law enforcement. In a new partnership with Flock Safety, Ring camera owners will now be able to easily share their video footage with the thousands of police departments that use Flock’s software.
The new feature, called “Community Requests,” will allow law enforcement to directly request video evidence from Ring cameras in a specific area related to a crime investigation. The request goes out to Ring users in the area, who can then choose whether or not to share their footage. Any video that is shared will go into Flock’s secure platform, where it can only be used for that one specific investigation.
This is a major step in the growing collaboration between private security tech and public law enforcement. Flock Safety’s CEO says the partnership will lead to “much safer communities” and that law enforcement agencies have been asking for this kind of access for a long time.
However, the move is sure to face scrutiny from privacy advocates, who are already concerned about the growing surveillance network created by private cameras. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has long criticized Ring and similar technologies, arguing that they create a “warrantless digital dragnet” that monitors everyone, regardless of whether they are suspected of a crime.
Flock’s CEO pushes back on these concerns, saying, “There is a certain part of the country that just doesn’t prioritize safety.” The new partnership is set to roll out soon and will be offered for free to all of Flock’s law enforcement customers.
