In recent news from CPO Magazine, expanding partnerships between Amazon’s Ring Video Doorbell and various Police organizations are raising an alarm among some.

The story notes that of primary concern is the fact that most police departments have no limitations in place governing with whom or how they share video footage they have received from local homeowners’ rings.

“According to the basic type of agreement with law enforcement agencies, police can keep and share surveillance videos with anyone they want, even if there is no evidence of a crime that has taken place,” the story says. “The expectation, of course, is that each police department will have a set of policies, protocols or rules in place in order to avoid abuse of these surveillance video assets–but Amazon doesn’t actually check up on police departments to make sure this is the case.”

On the one hand, increasing police effectiveness is key to ensuring public safety. However, other media outlets have covered incidents of the public taking a stand to curtail unchecked increase in Police powers like when San Francisco banned facial recognition by police in the city. 

The story also notes that Ring has been quietly utilizing its reach to essentially gain market share and further permeate the public sphere.

“Currently, at least 630 police departments around the nation have some form of partnership agreement in place with Amazon Ring,” the story says. “That number is up significantly by more than 200 since August, and Amazon Ring appears to be on a massive outreach program to get even more police departments to sign on to its surveillance video partnerships.”

Security industry testing lab and media source, IPVM noted Ring’s public outreach program which was putting reduced cost rings in entire communities.

Norris knows that a surveillance system is a good part of a comprehensive security plan for your enterprise. Sharing or not sharing the footage with police must be up to the system owner. Contact a security expert from Norris today to find out how we can help keep your people safer with a top-notch security plan that includes video.

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Norris, Inc.—a South Portland, Maine-based life-safety and security systems integrator with satellite offices in Bangor, Maine; Lee, New Hampshire; and Burlington, Vermont—was founded nearly 40 years ago by two brothers, Brad and Harty Norris. The brothers remain on the board of directors today and continue to help steer the enterprise toward its goal of advancing life-safety, security, and communications while striving to grow in its status as Northern New England’s leading systems integrator. Norris provides fully integrated life-safety and security solutions, comprising disparate systems including fire alarm, intrusion detection, access control, video surveillance, communications, and emergency notification and total systems integration via the Vigilance Systems Integration Engine and ENS. Want to become part of the Norris family? We’re hiring!